Man jailed for failing to repay waste crime proceeds

Robert Spencer of Oak Farm, Doncaster, was yesterday sentenced to 12 months imprisonment at Sheffield Magistrates Court yesterday for failing to make any contributions towards the Proceeds of Crime Order to recoup the costs of previous offending.

In May 2014, he was handed a nine month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered to pay £20,000 in compensation for offences at Middleton Quarry in Pollington and later at his own site at Wroot Road in Doncaster.

Between January and October 2009, Mr Spencer allowed thousands of tonnes of waste to be tipped on his land when there was no environmental permit in force.

The Environment Agency, which had already recorded the tipping of 127,000 tonnes of waste at Middleton Quarry, observed the large-scale tipping at Mr Spencer’s site and had asked him to cease immediately.

Following further warnings to which Mr Spencer claimed he had not been responsible for the deposit of waste, the Agency conducted a raid on the Wroot Road site in October 2010. In total, they reported that around 72,000 tonnes of waste had been deposited at the site.

Charges

Charges were brought by the Environment Agency under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and the Environmental Permitting (England & Wales) Regulations 2007 and 2010.

The Environment Agency worked with the Insolvency Service and its own in-house Accredited Financial Investigators to secure orders under Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986.

As Mr Spencer has not made an attempt to pay any of the costs, the court activated the default period of imprisonment of 12 months.

The Environment Agency will now look at the next steps in order to recover the outstanding balance as the order still needs to be complied with.

‘Disregard’

Speaking after the case, an Environment Agency officer involved with the investigation said: “Spencer has shown a complete disregard for the law and the environment throughout this case and it is important that we now seek to recover the outstanding charges to bring this case to a close.

“This prosecution demonstrates that we take cases such as this very seriously and will not hesitate to prosecute if necessary to protect the environment and local communities.”