A convicted waste criminal has had an additional nine years and four months added to his current seven and a half year fraud sentence. The defendant will now serve a total of 16 years.
The waste criminal is serving his current sentence after defrauding the electrical waste recycling industry of £2.2 million in 2016, following an Environment Agency investigation.
The defendant was originally found guilty in 2016, after Environment Agency officers discovered falsified paperwork that was used to illegitimately claim that his firm, TLC Recycling Ltd, had collected and recycled over 19,500 tonnes of household electrical waste during 2011. Documents seized showed that the company had claimed money for waste collections from streets and properties that did not exist. Vehicles used to transfer waste were recorded as being in different places on the same day, with some vehicles not existing at all, and some not able to carry the loads of waste that they were recorded to have carried.
In February 2019, the defendant was ordered to pay back more than £1.3 million of the £2.2 million he acquired through illegal activity, on top of over £79,000 from a previous Environment Agency prosecution - for exporting hazardous waste to Nigeria in 2011, and over £17,000 from VAT fraud in 2015.
Despite numerous court orders, the defendant failed to make any payments towards the £1.3 million order and insufficient payments towards the other two. Approximately £46,000 had been made towards an earlier order, but the defendant insisted he had no money to pay and unsuccessfully attempted to have the orders reduced.
Last week a Judge ruled that there was no realistic prospect of the defendant paying the outstanding amount, and sent him to prison for a further:
Each sentence will be served consecutively to each other and the defendant will have to serve the extra time after finishing his current sentence, unless he pays the money that is owed.
Environment Agency Waste Crime Officer, Dr Paul Salter commented that, "this is a clear signal that waste crime does not pay".
“We take a hard line against anyone that intentionally sets out to profit from defrauding recycling systems. In recent times, we have increased resources in our waste enforcement team and are working with partners to establish a Joint Waste Crime Unit to forge stronger links between government, police forces and local councils to tackle waste crime".
