Stephen Leigh of Staffordshire-based SS Thermoplastics was found guilty under the Theft Act on May 27, following an investigation by the Environment Agency and Staffordshire police (see letsrecycle.com story).
” We're not very happy about people who have been issuing PRNs fraudulently and then seem to be re-accredited.“
– John Turner, ACP
It has now emerged that Mr Leigh's company has been re-accredited for 2005 by the Agency to issue plastic packaging waste recovery notes (PRNs) – the “currency” bought and sold as evidence of producer responsibility for packaging waste.
Speaking to letsrecycle.com, Mr Leigh of SS Thermoplastics declined to comment on the matter, but asked whether he would be issuing PRNs in 2005, said “possibly”.
Agency
A spokesman for the Agency insisted officials had taken “all circumstances into account” before agreeing to furnish SS Thermoplastics with new accreditation for 2005.
He said: “Anyone that wants to gain accreditation has got to apply each year. We will only give accreditation if we are happy they fulfil all the criteria, we do look at a range of issues before granting accreditation. In this instance the Environment Agency has decided to grant accreditation.”
The spokesman added that the Agency would “closely monitor” the situation concerning SS Thermoplastics.
Defra
A spokeswoman for Defra said it was “very difficult” for the Department to give a view on the circumstances involving SS Thermoplastics, and that it was “very much for the Agency to take responsibility for monitoring the system.” Defra said that “ultimately, the Agency have all the facts and have decided to re-accredit.”
John Turner, who chairs the Advisory Committee on Packaging, an independent body that advises Defra, said: “We're not very happy about people who have been issuing PRNs fraudulently and then seem to be re-accredited, but the Agency don't have the powers to refuse accreditation to companies that seem to have got their act together.”
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