Grundon wins civil action after weighbridge fraud

According to Grundon, an estimated 2,200 tonnes of material in total was fraudulently weighed between January 2007 and February 2010 at the companys waste transfer station on Thorpe Way Industrial Estate in Banbury.

This lead to the prosecution in 2012 of two former Grundon employees, Sheldon Lewin and Anthony Horne, who pleaded guilty to several counts of fraud and received a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, together with 250 hours of community service.

Now a second case, in the civil courts, has seen action against three individuals who conspired with the Grundon pair.

Both Mr Lewin and Mr Horne had admitted conspiring with three individuals Andrew James McDowell, Anthony Charles Hone and Victor Ian Gardner in a later civil claim brought by Grundon, which was heard at Oxford County Court in March 2013.

Court documents obtained last week by letsrecycle.com show that at the end of the two-day civil hearing presided over by Recorder Howlett on March 11-12 2013, the three defendants were ordered to pay Grundon Waste Management thousands of pounds in damages.

The hearing, according to Grundon, heard allegations that the actions of the three men amounted to fraud and breach of contract.

Mr Andrew James McDowell of Banbury Mini Skip Hire was ordered to pay 155,210, Mr Anthony Charles Hone of ACH Mini Skips was ordered to pay 26,924, and Mr Victor Ian Gardner was ordered to pay 21,584.

The three defendants were also ordered by the Judge to pay interests on the awards and to pay Grundons legal costs of 52,904. Attempts made by letsrecycle.com to contact all three defendants for comment were unsuccessful.

CCTV evidence

Following Mr Lewin and Mr Hornes 2012 prosecution, Grundon and its legal team at Slade Legal pursued the civil claims against the three defendants after the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to take action against them.

Commenting on the Crowns decision to not take action against the three defendants, Grundon finance director, Clayton Sullivan-Webb, commented: We were naturally disappointed as we felt the evidence was conclusive, which is why we decided to pursue a civil action.

According to Grundon, CCTV evidence in the 2012 criminal case showed the computerised weighbridge systems being manually overridden.

Pleased

Commenting on the outcome of the case at Oxford County Court in March 2013, Mr Sullivan-Webb said he was very pleased with the result, adding that the judgment should act as a deterrent to anyone thinking of bribing our employees in the future.

He said of the three defendents: These companies were collecting waste, bringing it to our weighbridge and bribing our employees to under-charge them for the amount of waste they were disposing of. Companies like these not only give the industry a bad name, but they are offering the public and businesses a cut price service by committing fraudulent acts and now they are paying the price.

Founded by Stephen Grundon in 1929, Grundon provides landfill operation, waste collection, and energy from waste services. Its range of collection services include mixed recyclables, residual (non-recyclable) waste, and confidential, food, clinical and hazardous wastes.