Robert Surtees, appeared at Durham Crown Court for sentencing on 13 May after previously pleading guilty to failing to provide information regarding the whereabouts of the waste, as required by law.
Mr Surtees, whose company was responsible for collecting and transporting waste, had allowed his carrier’s registration to lapse in July 2020, violating waste duty of care regulations.
These regulations mandate that waste carriers must provide detailed documentation, including waste transfer notes, specifying the origin, transportation details, and final destination of the waste.
Investigation
The court heard that an Environment Agency investigation was triggered in September 2022 following suspicions of illegal waste disposal at a County Durham site owned by B&S Recycling of which Mr Surtees was a director.
Though no evidence of illegal dumping was found, subsequent inquiries revealed that B&S Recycling had removed waste from two other sites.
Waste transfer notes confirmed that between September 2020 and September 2022, Surtees’ company collected 170 loads of waste, totalling approximately 25,000 tonnes, from sites in Stockton-on-Tees and Birtley, Tyne and Wear, for which they were paid £157,963.71.
However, none of the transfer notes contained information about the final destination of the waste. Upon investigation, Mr Surtees denied any waste being deposited at his County Durham site, asserting that it had been mixed with mag-lime and applied to farmers’ fields.
Following the issuance of a notice requiring Mr Surtees to provide details of where each of the 170 loads had been deposited by 31 October 2022, the defendant failed to respond.
Consequently, Mr Surtees was fined £4,250 and ordered to pay £5,650 in costs and a victim surcharge for his role in the illegal transportation of waste, highlighting the seriousness with which environmental regulations are upheld and enforced.
Pollution
Gary Wallace, area environment manager for the Environment Agency in the Northeast, said: “The waste industry is strictly regulated to prevent pollution. Duty of care legislation ensures we know what waste is being transported, who is transporting it and where to, ensuring the community and environment is protected.
“Mr Surtees totally disregarded these regulations, profiting from transporting a large amount waste without any evidence of where it’s been deposited potentially causing harm to the environment as well as undermining legitimate waste carriers who operate within the law.”
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