Company fined for not having permit to remove waste from acquired site

The company director, Matthew Berry was also fined £3,330 and ordered to pay £2,000 after pleading guilty to operating a site without a permit.

According to a statement from the Environment Agency yesterday (3 July), SBR Group Development Ltd purchased the site on Winterton Road, Scunthorpe, in late 2017/18 from the now liquidated Thompsons Waste Management Limited. Thompsons had previously been prosecuted for keeping waste in excess of its environmental permit.

Mr Berry contacted the Agency in August 2018 to discuss how to clear the site “in an effort to reduce the waste” and was informed he needed an environmental permit or registered permit, the regulator explained.

However, the statement said further site visits were carried out in June and December 2019 “when waste was still present”. Officers from the Environment Agency also found “a heap of fines from a trommel machine which is used to break up waste”.

Interview

The defendant attended a formal interview in January 2020 when he said that nearly all the waste had been removed to landfill.

But at a further visit in June 2021 officers noted that large piles of shredded waste were still on the site. It was finally cleared in November 2021.

Officers estimated that the operator had avoided £19,189.50 in permitting charges. The site was also assessed to have stored 726.31 tonnes of waste, the statement said.

A spokesperson for the Environment Agency said: “We welcome this sentence which should act as a deterrent to other companies who breach environmental legislation.

“As a regulator, the Environment Agency will not hesitate to pursue companies that fail to meet its obligations.”