At Preston Crown Court on 12 September 2025, the waste firm was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £6,000 in costs for operating waste sites without the necessary environmental permits.
The company’s director Cavin Mears was handed a 12-month community order requiring 200 hours of unpaid work. He was also ordered to pay £5,360 in compensation to the Environment Agency, alongside £6,000 in costs.
Former director Stephen Bryce also received a 12-month community order requiring 150 hours of unpaid work and was ordered to pay £6,000 in costs.
Both men, along with the company, faced further charges of falsifying documents linked to hazardous waste disposal.
Passing sentence, His Honour Judge Mathieson said both men had long experience in the waste industry, including work with hazardous materials, and should therefore have been fully aware of their legal duties.
He added that their disregard for the rules showed they “didn’t care about obligations and didn’t care about the impact on people, property or the environment.”
Operating without environmental permit
The court heard that Mears and Bryce had previously been directors of RF Recycling, which ran a regulated facility at Twin Lakes Industrial Estate, Croston, in Lancashire.
The business operated without an environmental permit between January and June 2020.
Following a visit by EA officers in October 2021, RF Recycling ceased trading.
However, investigators discovered that Cats and Dust immediately commenced operations from a separate unit on the same industrial estate, again without the necessary permits, continuing until January 2022.
Mears, formerly a director of RF Recycling, was the sole director of Cats and Dust. Bryce resigned as a director in September 2021, shortly before the company began trading.
Following sentencing, Shannon Nicholson, Environmental Crime Team Leader at the Environment Agency, commented: “This case shows that those who attempt to profit from waste crime will be held to account.
“Handling hazardous materials without the correct permits is a serious offence which can put communities and the environment at risk, while also undercutting legitimate businesses.
“By continuing operations despite warnings and by falsifying paperwork, these defendants demonstrated a blatant disregard for the law.”
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