The sentencing of St Regis Paper Co for misleading the Environment Agency has been adjourned after the waste paper recycling company was granted leave of appeal.
The company, which is part of packaging giant DS Smith PLC and is the UKs largest waste paper recycling firm, was due to be sentenced this week (April 16) for a conviction over effluent discharge at its Higher Kings Mill paper mill at Cullompton in Mid Devon.
St Regis Paper Co operates the paper mill under a Pollution Prevention and Control permit issued by the Environment Agency. The permit contains a condition that the company monitors its own effluent treatment plant and reports the results to the Agency.
The company was convicted in October 2010 of misleading the Environment Agency over the quality of effluent discharged from the mill into the River Culm in Mid Devon.
The companys technical manager Christopher Steer was found guilty of falsifying records, after a six-day trial at Exeter Crown Court (see letsrecycle.com story).
Mr Steer was due to be sentenced in November 2010, while the case against St Regis as a company was adjourned to April 2011 as the Environment Agency had made a Proceeds of Crime Application.
However, the Environment Agency revealed this week that the company has now been granted a leave of appeal.
A spokesman for the Environment Agency told letsrecycle.com: The April 16 hearing was adjourned because St Regis has appealed against their original conviction and the Court of Appeal are going to hear that first. It will be a one day hearing but no date has been set yet.
A spokesman for St Regis Paper Co confirmed that it would be appealing and said the appeal related to three specific offences it was found guilty of at the end of last year. St Regis had suggested it would appeal the convictions in October 2010.
He said: We can confirm that St Regis has been granted leave to appeal the three specific offences which it was found guilty of in the Crown Court; of on occasions at Higher Kings Mill between 2005 and 2007 intentionally making a false entry in a required Environmental Agency record.
The spokesman added that the exact date of the appeal hearing will not be known until nearer the time, but suggested that it could be as much as 12 months from now.
Higher Kings Mill makes coloured card for office and educational markets.
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