Two former directors of a Teesside company have been ordered by the Teesside Crown Court to clear their illegal scrap site, which was housing hundreds of vehicles. Both men, of Phoenix Sidings in Stockton-On-Tees, pleaded guilty to two offenses of operating an illegal scrap yard.
The Environment Agency's investigation in 2019 revealed that the brothers, operating as Jap Parts Ltd, were storing vehicles illegally on two adjacent sites on Britannia Road. Although they had an environmental permit for one of the sites, they continued to operate without proper authorisation. The court heard that the company ceased trading in 2014, after which the brothers set up a new company, Jap Parts (North) Ltd, inheriting the vehicles without the necessary environmental permit.
The Environment Agency officers discovered approximately 300 scrap vehicles on the sites. The investigation also found that no vehicles had been removed from the site between 2013 and 2018, breaching the terms of the original permit, which allowed vehicles to be kept for a maximum of three years.
Despite warnings and requests from the Environment Agency to clear the site, the defendants failed to comply. As a result, the court ordered the brothers to pay £1,591 in fines and costs and issued a remediation order, requiring them to clear the site of all remaining scrap vehicles.
Gary Wallace, Area Environment Manager for the Environment Agency in the North East, emphasised the importance of strict regulations governing the storage and dismantling of scrap vehicles, stating:
"The storage and dismantling of scrap vehicles is strictly regulated because of the pollution risks of hazardous liquid such as oil, fuel and break fluids, as well as batteries, dismantling must be done using methods to reduce the risk to the environment, and the waste stored pending recovery or disposal. Operators must have an environmental permit to carry out these activities".
