Shaun Nigel Dixon was the sole director of SOS Skip Hire and Haulage Ltd, which is now in liquidation. Despite having its permit revoked by the Environment Agency and two enforcement notices and two breach of condition notices served by the planning authority, the company took in even more waste at its site in Dale Street.
Mr Dixon, aged 47, was yesterday (November 24) sentenced to 12 months in prison, suspended for two years and ordered to do 200 hours unpaid work in the community, after the court heard he allowed nearly 20,000 tonnes of waste to be brought to the site when the limit was only 1,100 tonnes. The waste was seven to eight metres high in places, breaching planning conditions.
Court
Recorder Mr GRW Evans QC sitting at Lincoln Crown Court also disqualified him from being a company director for five years and issued a regulation 44 order requiring him to produce a plan for how he is going to clear the site.
Sentencing, he said that this was a ‘deliberate and flagrant’ breach of the law and Dixon dealt with the business in an ‘amateurish’ way.
Dixon, who pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing, was also ordered to pay £16,094 costs.
Mrs Anne-Lise McDonald, in a joint prosecution for the Environment Agency and Lincolnshire county council as waste planning authority, said the company was issued a permit to run a waste transfer station in March 2012.
Between then and 2014 investigating officers made many visits to the site where she said they found between 13 and 17 times as much waste as permitted.
She said: “Dixon knew the limits and failed to reduce the amount kept at the site. He even allowed more waste to be accepted, compounding the problem.”
Liquidation
She told the court that Dixon blamed lack of finances as the reason for his actions. The company has since gone into liquidation.
Mrs McDonald said that in April 2013 the county council served two enforcement notices and two breach of condition notices and in December 2013 the Environment Agency revoked the permit but more waste was brought in.
The largest pile and the one which caused the officers the most concern was a very large pile of mixed waste which they said was “akin to landfill waste” but without the precautions that a legitimate landfill site would have in place.
In August 2013 officers noted that the large pile was emitting puffs of smoke and charred remains were noted indicating that the waste was or had been burning and the fire service was called. They recommended splitting the waste into 3 piles to create fire breaks.
In December 2013 methane was detected coming from the waste and water samples taken from ditches leading to a surface water drain and then the River Witham had high levels of ammonia.
Mitigation
In mitigation for Dixon, defence counsel Mr Cramner-Brown said, Dixon was trying to save the family business from failing and took his eye off the ball.
After the hearing investigating officer Peter Stark said: “Dixon and his company were given every opportunity to comply with their permit and planning conditions and operate a business legitimately.
“He provided assurances that action would be taken to remove waste from the site and activities would be compliant with the waste regulations, these were hollow promises and his legacy to the City of Lincoln will be remembered for the wrong reasons.”
Liquidator
Alan Draycott, liquidator for SOS Skip Hire and Haulage Ltd, confirmed to letsrecycle.com that a winding up order for the company was issued on April 28 2014 and said that this had taken place following a petition by one of the company’s creditors, HM Revenue and Customs, as it was owed money.
He said: “Our responsibility as liquidator is to realise the assets for the benefits of creditors.”
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