Two directors of a Hartlepool-based skip hire company were yesterday (August 19) ordered to pay £234,393 after admitting to having allowed waste to be illegally stored at an unlicensed site.

In a case brought by the Environment Agency (EA), the men, Andrew Benson, 41, and Kevin Brough, 46, both of Hartlepool, were told by a judge at Teesside Crown Court to pay £124,393 and £110,000 respectively within the next 12 months or face three years in prison.

The pile of waste at Easy Skips (NE) site which EA officers believed posed a threat to human health

Each man received a conditional discharge for two years, while the company involved, Easy Skips (NE) Ltd, was given no separate penalty but was ordered to pay full prosecution costs of £9,121.87 because Judge Anthony Briggs said it should "not escape unscathed".

Mr Benson, Mr Brough, and Easy Skips (NE) Ltd were originally convicted in November 2007 after pleading guilty to offences relating to the operation of a site on Casebourne Road in the town, which was used as a waste transfer station.

Sentencing was adjourned until yesterday to be dealt with at the same time as a 'proceeds of crime' hearing, where officers from the North-East Regional Asset Recovery Team asked the court to confiscate assets equal to the value of the benefit gained from the criminal activities.

Proceeds of Crime

The confiscation of £234,393 is the second highest ever achieved in a case brought by the EA, and the Agency has now confiscated more than £1.5 million under the Proceeds of Crime Act since it came into force in 2007.

A spokesman for the Agency said that it was increasingly using the Proceeds of Crime Act as opposed to simply looking for offenders to be fined. He explained that "it's not until recently we got our own team of financial advisors", making easier for the EA to pursue cases in this way and to more effectively penalise offenders.

When assets are confiscated under the Proceeds of Crime Act, a proportion of the value goes to the EA - to help fund its environmental crime operations - whereas in the case of a straightforward fine, the entire amount goes to the Treasury.

Licence

The court heard that the company knowingly permitted large amounts of controlled waste to be deposited at the site, which did not have a waste management licence or registered exemption, and as such should not have been used to store waste, and that the two men, as directors, allowed this to happen

Environment Agency officers visited the site in both September and November 2006 and saw large piles of bricks, rubble and concrete, mixed with plastics and wood, as well as a large pile of wood and two skips full of waste. They warned Mr Benson and Mr Brough the operation needed a waste management licence.

However, when officers returned in February 2007 the waste pile was even larger - three metres high, 12 metres wide and 18 metres long. The waste pile contained concrete, breeze blocks, wood, plastic, window frames, plastic sheets, mattresses, plasterboard, scrap metal, green waste and soil.

By June 2007 the pile was so large it was spilling through the broken boundary fence out onto the pavement and posed a risk of harm to human health. In some places the path was completely covered by waste.

EA officers believed that any further increase in waste would result in it encroaching onto the road and they also had concerns that movement on site by heavy machinery could throw waste into the air.

Lee Fish, prosecuting counsel for the Environment Agency, told the court the waste operation was clearly on a commercial scale and an aggravating feature was that no efforts had been made to clear waste from the site "which continues to be stored there illegally".

Rules

Following the sentencing, the Environment Agency's environment manager Julian Carrington said: "We are delighted with today's result. Over many months Easy Skips (NE) Limited and their directors Andrew Benson and Kevin Brough undercut legitimate businesses by deliberately flouting waste management rules designed to protect the environment and the public.

"Many of their customers were misled to believe they had paid good money for their waste to be disposed of properly, at a licensed site. Instead, the waste has simply been dumped to become an unsightly mountain of waste on an illegal site that spilled out onto footpaths creating a hazard to the public.

"Now the proceeds of crime hearing has concluded we are looking at what action can be taken to clear the site," he added.

Easy Skips (NE)

In mitigation, the court heard that the defendants had pleaded guilty and had no previous convictions for environmental offences.

While Mr Benson resigned as a director of Easy Skips (NE) in March 2007, Mr Brough remains a director of the company, which also operates another site in Hartlepool, at Thomlinson Road, which does have a waste management licence.

Neither Mr Brough or anyone else representing Easy Skips (NE) was available for comment today.