Skip hire boss jailed for waste offences

Albert Skip Hire Ltd and manager Raymond Anthony Shepherd, 58, were sentenced yesterday (December 12) at Teesside Crown Court for illegal activities which took place at the companys site in Dodsworth Street, and a second site at West Musgrave Farm in Bishop Auckland.

Also sentenced were Mr Shepherds brother and company director Paul Stuart Shepherd, 56, who was handed a six month jail term suspended for two years, and Jack Richard Shepherd, 24, who was fined 350.

A fourth family member, Tony Leigh Shepherd, 39, will be sentenced on December 20 in relation to the case.

Offences among the five defendants included operating a waste facility without a permit, depositing waste without a permit, and breaching a suspension notice that ordered the firms waste activities to cease.

While Tony and Jack Shepherd both admitted charges, Raymond and Paul Shepherd, and the company itself, all denied the charges put to them, prompting a trial that lasted 10 weeks.

Prosecution

The Environment Agency brought the prosecution after its investigating officers visiting the Dodsworth Street site saw the storing and depositing of waste on an access road, for which it did not have a permit, between March 2011 and March 2012.

In July 2011 an enforcement notice was served upon the company, requiring the waste to be removed, but when the deadline passed in August of that year, the waste was still there.

The Agency then issued an enforcement notice that suspended the Dodsworth sites permit and ordered that the waste be removed, but the Agency said that waste continued to be delivered there.

David Edwardson, environmental crime team leader at the Environment Agency, said: Todays sentence demonstrates the seriousness of the offences carried out by the Shepherd family. Their illegal waste operations were carried out in the interests of profit, unfortunately at the expense of the environment. By not complying with waste regulations, the company also undermined legitimate businesses.

Compliance

All waste operations of this nature must comply with environmental laws. The Environment Agency works with firms to help them comply with their legal requirements, but when continued breaches are seen, enforcement action will be taken.

We would like to thank our partners, including Durham Constabulary, for their help in tackling this type of crime. Together we are determined that people who flout the law will be brought before the courts and dealt with accordingly.