Environmental Update (August 2009)
Suspended Custodial Sentence for Skip Company Director
A Birmingham skip hire company and its director have been
sentenced for carrying out an illegal waste operation. The charges
were brought by the Environment Agency (EA) under the Environmental
Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2007. Both the company
and director pleaded guilty to six charges at an earlier date;
three against the company and three against the director.
The Company Director received a four month suspended custodial
sentence for each charge, to run concurrently. He also received 150
hours unpaid work, disqualification from being a company director
for five years and ordered to pay costs of £3,000 and a victim
surcharge. It was estimated that they saved in the region of £8,500
by running an illegal operation without an environmental
permit.
During a visit to the land occupied by the Company, the EA had
witnessed the illegal deposit of various skips of waste including
builders waste, household waste and wood. The company was ordered
to remove all waste from the site as they were operating without an
environmental permit. However, a further site visit revealed that
the offences were continuing despite the earlier investigation and
warnings. During the inspection, general waste was seen covering
the ground, along with nine full skips of waste and a further two
skips branded with the Company details. Further inspections, at a
later date, revealed that the offences were again found to be
continuing; similar waste seen in previous inspections had been
deposited.
In interviews for each set of offences the Company Director
stated the company had been in financial difficulties. He claimed
that the waste was taken to the site to be segregated in order to
reduce disposal costs and that he was struggling to keep the
company afloat. He had deliberately decided to continue to operate
without a permit, despite the earlier warnings.
In mitigation, the Court was told that no noxious substances had
been deposited so as to pollute the environment, there was an
effort to reduce costs to make the business more viable which had
failed and the Company Director was heavily in debt. It was also
explained that all the company assets had been sold and the
business had now ceased to trade.