Named & Shamed

A Belfast skip hire company has been fined £17,000 after pleading guilty to breaches of waste management legislation.

The DoE said in court that there was the potential to cause harm to human health from the illegal waste.

When DoE staff visited the Delta Skips site on the Upper Springfield Road last year it was found to contain 600 tonnes of 'controlled waste'.

It included tyres, waste food and gas cylinders.

Health and Safety Executive (North West)

Skip hire contractor is fined after employee is crushed

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is warning the recycling industry to keep pedestrians well away from vehicles or face prosecution.

The reminder comes after the prosecution of a Lancashire skip hire contractor following an incident in which a 17 year-old employee was crushed under a 13 tonne excavator at a waste transfer station.

Peter David Marquis of Bryers Farm, Lea Lane, Lea, Preston was fined £15,000 and ordered to pay £4,631.60 in costs by Preston Magistrates Court after pleading guilty to an offence under Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

The court heard that the incident happened on 21 December 2007 at Mr Marquis' waste transfer station at Railway Sidings, Kirkham, Lancashire.

Employees were carrying out a process called 'totting' - sorting out recyclable materials from skips. They were working on the floor of the transfer station while the excavator and a loading shovel worked close by. The excavator tracked back and crushed the teenager, breaking his femur and pelvis and causing serious internal abdominal injuries.

HSE Inspector Stephen Garsed said:

"While nothing can make up for the appalling life-changing injuries suffered by the teenager, Mr Marquis has accepted full responsibility for the incident from the outset and has not attempted to blame others.

"This incident occurred because Mr Marquis and his staff did not see the risk of people working close to machines. Risk assessments must be based on the best available information. There is ample advice on the HSE website about health and safety in the waste industry. It is now so easy to find that there can be no excuse for not knowing the standards to meet or for not making sure that risk assessments and operating procedures follow best practice."

FLY TIPPING SWITCHES TO SUBURBS.

A recent report states that the scourge of fly-tipping has spread to the suburbs according to official sources. Illegal rubbish dumping-almost all of it household refuse- is now found as much in genteel and leafy areas as in sink estates and inner cities. The shift of fly-tipping to the suburbs has gone alongside the imposition of fortnightly rubbish collections and strict wheelie bin regulations.Gordon Brown's new bin taxes look set to make it even worse, by giving perverse financial incentives to irresponsibly fly-tip. Overall there were 1.24 million fly-tip incidents, down 7.5 per cent on last year. However the figures do not include Liverpool because of problems over recording in the city.When will the Government learn that by lowering the licence fees and permits much of this would stop by making skips more affordable. No doubt those overcoats in Whitehall who live in another world will come up with more senseless solutions and ignore what anyone with an ounce of common sense can see. The local councils should question themseves as to how much they collect in taxes and how much the clearing of fly-tipping is costing them, I believe they may alter their outlook on the whole situation. 

FLY TIPPER JAILED.

Peter James Fitzgerald of Hainton Avenue, Grimsby has been jailed for three months by Grimsby Magistrates Court after pleading guilty to four instances of fly-tipping. Fitzgerald, who also goes under the alias of Peter Bell was operating " Town & Country Skip Hire" at the time the offences were committed. 

Landfill operator forced to pay £1.27 million penalty for running illegal site

The Environment Agency in the South West, has worked in partnership with the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA), to secure the successful confiscation of £1, 194, 638 million from a landfill operator who ran his site illegally.  The seizure of assets is largest ever made following an environmental conviction in this country.

Exeter Crown Court today ordered that John Craxford and his company John Craxford Plant Hire Ltd, hand over more than a million of their assets. 

They were also ordered to pay a total of  £86, 937 in fines and costs, after pleading guilty to a string of offences committed at Yannon Lane landfill site at Kingkerswell in Devon.  The offences included burying massive volumes of unsuitable waste and breaching various licences and permits since March 2003.

The Environment Agency launched a major investigation, dubbed Operation Cleansweep, involving surveillance, after becoming suspicious about the way the site was being run.

The investigation revealed that John Craxford and his company, John Craxford (Plant Hire) Ltd, were responsible for burying huge amounts of unsuitable waste, in contravention of the sites permit, since at least March 2003.  The types of waste buried included wood, plastics, cardboard, electrical goods, carpet, garden waste and household waste.  The site should have only taken inert materials such as soil and stone.   In addition, the sites waste transfer station was only supposed to accept 4,999 tonnes of mixed waste a year.  The investigation revealed it was taking far more than this.  A number of other breaches of the sites permit were also discovered.

Surveillance work demonstrated that large volumes of mixed waste were being delivered to the sites waste transfer station each day.  The waste was delivered by local skip firms and building contractors.  At the end of the day, this waste was then buried on a daily basis.  In January 2007 alone, the site was shown to have taken over 5,000 cubic yards of mixed waste for which it received over £47,000

The Assets Recovery Agency investigated to what extent the defendants benefited from their activities.  Using the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, they asked the court to confiscate assets equal to the value of the benefit gained.

‘The scale of illegal tipping at this site is the worst I have encountered. Our investigation revealed a catalogue of offences, committed over a period of several years.  By working in partnership with the Assets Recovery Agency, we have been able to recover the money made from the illegal activity.  I hope the case serves as a warning to others and demonstrates that environmental crime does not pay,’ said Adrian Evans from the Environmental Crime Team of the Environment Agency.

John Craxford (Plant Hire) Ltd was today fined £60,000 and ordered to pay £18,855 costs by Judge Wassall after pleading guilty to nine offences under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and Pollution Prevention & Control Regulations 2000.

The offences included:

·         burying large volumes of unsuitable waste in the landfill

·         keeping controlled waste on land at Yannon Lane, in a manner likely to cause pollution of the environment

·         making false statements in its application to obtain a PPC permit

·         failure to provide accurate waste tonnage returns

·         failing to provide improvement requirements required by the PPC permit

·         failure to request transfer notes from waste carriers using the site

·         exceeding its licensed limits in respect of the quantity of waste allowed in the waste transfer station

The company director John Craxford, of Foredown Farm, Kingskerswell, Newton Abbot, Devon, was given a three-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay £8,081 costs after pleading guilty to four offences under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and Pollution Prevention & Control Regulations 2000.  These offences related to the part he played as a Director of the limited company in the commission of its offences.

He was warned by Judge Wassell that if he committed any offence within the three year period he would not only be sentenced for the new offence but also the offences before the court today.

• On the 12 October 2007,  three skip firms were ordered to pay more than £17,000 in fines and costs for illegally tipping at Yannon Lane Landfill.  The case was brought by the Environment Agency.  These offences were brought to light as a result of an Environment Agency investigation, dubbed Operation Cleansweep. 

• The Assets Recovery Agency was established by the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 to disrupt organised criminal enterprises through the recovery of criminal assets.  It also aims to promote the use of financial investigation as an integral part of criminal investigation.