Director of A Morrey Distribution Limited (AMDL) faces a bill of £84,000 for failing to comply with an enforcement notice, requiring him to submit a Fire Prevention Plan for a former permitted site.
The businessman was fined £1,000 for failing to comply with an enforcement notice, ordered to pay £50,000 in prosecution costs and a confiscation order of £33,000. That sum is to be paid as compensation to the Environment Agency and will go towards ensuring the site is safe. A default prison sentence of 12 to 18 months could be triggered if the sum is unpaid.
The director had pleaded guilty to four offences in June 2017 and the company entered guilty pleas to four similar charges of breaching permit conditions, contrary to the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations SI 2010/675, between November 2014 and April 2016. There was no separate penalty for offences committed by the company due to its financial status.
Proceedings were brought by the Environment Agency as the court heard that AMDL had been granted an environmental permit to store Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) on a temporary basis. During 11 inspections between 2014 and 2016, Environment Agency officers noted that bales of RDF were being stockpiled over the limits allowed by the permit. Approximately 18,000 tonnes of waste was deposited and stored in three different buildings across the site.
Some of the RDF bales were degrading and leaching a black liquid and giving off a foul odour. Concerns were raised by the Environment Agency, however the businessman failed to carry out any action to reduce the risk of fire at the site, even after a suspension notice was issued. The environmental permit was later revoked. The RDF bales presented an ongoing risk of self-combustion, with potentially very serious consequences given the site's proximity to the A500 D-road and the west coast main railway line.
The judge noted that breaches had occurred very shortly after the environmental permit had been issued by the Environment Agency. He stated that the director had been "utterly stupid" to have entered into an arrangement with a third party to accept the bales without a proper written agreement between the parties. Credit was given for early guilty pleas entered in 2017 by the company and its director, and the judge acknowledged that all parties had genuinely attempted to find a solution to enable the site to be cleared of all waste, and that this had delayed the conclusion of criminal proceedings.
Adam Lines from the Environment Agency commented on the businessman and his actions: "There was a very serious risk of fire at this facility which would have had grave implications for the surrounding areas. His actions undermined legitimate businesses and that of the wider local economy".
"The Environment Agency takes waste crime very seriously and we will use all powers available to us to pursue those who flout the regulations".
The Environment Agency is now facilitating the sale of the site so that it can be cleared.
