After an eight week trial costing around 2 million in which four men and two companies were accused of various waste offences, the defendants were last week found not guilty for the majority of the charges.
Among the charges, it had been alleged that Mr Hendrik Wiegersma, owner of an equestrian centre in North Devon, had accepted payments from recycling firm Recycled Construction Systems (RCS), run by businessmen Tom Dunn, to use square bales each made out of 100 old tyres compressed into cubes as a construction material.
According to the prosecution lawyers, the bales were illegal waste because they failed to meet the PAS 108 specification which specifies the quality level tyre bales must reach to be used in construction.
But, the defence argued that the use of the tyres did not pose a danger to the environment and was a legitimate form of recycling.
Verdict
Mr Wiegersma was cleared of two counts of depositing illegal waste on his land. He had already been acquitted of running an illegal waste site on the direction of the judge and is set to receive costs from the Agency following the trial.
Meanwhile, Mr Dunn, aged 26, of Cutsey, Taunton, was cleared of four offences of depositing waste without a permit, but was found guilty of exporting waste tyres to Vietnam illegally, while his company, RCS, was convicted of storing tyres illegally at its Dunkeswell site.
Mr Dunns father Nigel, who drove the tyres to Mr Wiegersmas site, was cleared of two charges.
Lawrence Poole, owner of Aardvark Excavation, was cleared of two similar charges and of abandoning a trailer full of tyres in Haldon Forest, near Exeter, but the company was found guilty of breaching a duty of care to prevent tyres from falling from an insecure trailer.
Sentencing for the convictions is set to take place in January.
Criticism
In summing up, Judge Philip Wassall was highly critical of the Environment Agency for not giving the defendants greater guidance before deciding to rush a case against them.
He also described the law covering the use of tyre bales in construction projects as an opaque morass and urged the Agency to clarify the law before starting further more expensive prosecutions.
He said: It is becoming a very big growth industry and the defendants were entitled to be involved in it.
Regulation was difficult for the EA because the law is opaque and unclear.
Any law that a normal member of the public cannot look at or understand, even with guidance, is bound to lead to costly trials like this.
A spokesperson for the Environment Agency, said: We welcome the jurys conviction of three defendants and will give serious consideration to the judges comments. A fourth person has already been convicted and sentenced as part of the same investigation. Waste crime puts the environment and people at risk and undermines legitimate businesses.
A version of this story originally appeared in the Western Morning News.
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