Kent skip hire company owner given suspended sentence

According to a statement from the Environment Agency yesterday (14 August) Jack Selby, 36, was tried at Woolwich Crown Court on 8 August  and was sentenced to an 8-month suspended prison sentence, 60 hours of unpaid work, and a victim surcharge of £156.

Mr Selby was the sole director of Selbys Ltd, a company that operated by accepting construction, demolition, and household waste at rented premises on the Darent Industrial Estate’s Maypole Crescent from May 2021 to April 2022.

The Agency said that its suspicions arose in late 2020, prompting investigators to make several visits to the industrial estate. Their findings included large accumulations of waste, including wood and plastic, as well as significant quantities of crushed waste known as trommel fines.

Another of Selby’s companies, M&R Skip Hire, held an environmental permit there before being wound up. An earlier suspension notice served on M&R for environmental concerns had the site on the Environment Agency’s radar.

Waste

The Agency said its officers later found out Selbys, the new firm, was touting for custom on Facebook, with the advert falsely claiming the business was legitimate.

After believing Selby was handling waste illegally on the industrial estate in late 2020, investigators made a series of visits to confirm their suspicions.

They found the site stacked with large piles of waste like wood and plastic, along with a significant amount of crushed waste, known as trommel fines.

Excess

The excess waste stored at Maypole Crescent resulted in spillage onto adjacent

flood defences. According to the EA, the weight of the waste posed a substantial risk of embankment failure, which could have necessitated the evacuation of the entire industrial estate in the event of a flood. These defences play a “crucial role” in safeguarding the area from potential flooding from the Thames and Darent rivers, the Agency said.

Officers also found evidence Selbys was burning waste, the Agency said. It added: “In February last year, some of it caught fire by itself, leading to London Fire Brigade spending a day putting the flames out. Like the flood-risk, the fire could have had major consequences for local people.”

‘Reminder’

Matt Higginson, an environment manager at the EA said: “Jack Selby broke the law for financial gain. Not only did he charge customers but treated waste illegally. He also skipped fees for managing a lawful waste operation.

“There were several implications from his and his company’s operation – the risk of air pollution from the scale of the business, a poor understanding of fire-risk from how the waste was stored, and the damage to the flood embankment protecting riverside businesses. Selby’s suspended jail term must serve as a strong reminder to everyone in the waste industry, from companies to individuals, to operate within the law.”