Trial date set for UKs biggest WEEE export case

The 14 defendants facing charges in relation to the Environment Agencys largest ever investigation into alleged illegal exports of waste electrical equipment from the UK to Nigeria are set to stand trial in October 2011.

The accused 10 men and four companies were formally committed to stand trial on a provisional date of October 17, following a committal hearing at Basildon Crown Court last week (April 8). The trial is also expected to take place at Basildon Crown Court.

This followed an earlier committal hearing at Romford Magistrates Court in January 2011 (see letsrecycle.com story).

At that earlier hearing, the Environment Agencysaid that the charges relate to 11 containers of hazardous waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) being exported to Nigeria, containing a total of 158 tonnes of material.

They have been brought under the Transfrontier Shipment of Waste Shipment Regulation 2006, which restrict the shipment of waste materials to non-OECD countries.

Of the 14 defendants in the case, the Agency said that at last week’s hearing, four entered not guilty pleas, and the remainder did not enter a plea. The full list of defendants, as provided by the Environment Agency following the hearing, and their respective pleas, are as follows:
Birmingham-based company Thorn International UK Limited – not guilty
Essex-based Reliance Export Limited – no plea
London-based BJ Electronics Limited – no plea
Essex-based Orient Export Limited – no plea
Joseph Benson – no plea
Terence Dugbo – not guilty
Nnamdi Ezechukwu – no plea
Godwin Ezeemo – no plea
Prince Ibeh – no plea
Emmanuel Mukete – not guilty
Adrian Thompson – not guilty
Michael Sirpal Singh Aulakh – no plea
Chika Ezeemo – no plea
Krassimir Vengelov – no plea

The court hearings are the latest stage in an Environment Agency investigation which began in mid-2008, and initially resulted in the revelation in October 2010 that it was taking against nine men (see letsrecycle.com story), with 11 men and four companies then named in court in November 2010 (see letsrecycle.com story).

The Environment Agency has made illegal WEEE exports a priority, and it emerged late last year that half the 18 cases it was investigating in relation to waste exports related to electrical waste.