Waste operators fined for illegal asbestos storage

A1 Bins and Waste Ltds director David John Tuffen from Billericay and manager Nigel Lee Hickman from Port Talbot were charged in 2009 when Environment Agency (EA) officers discovered 72 large skips full of asbestos waste at their Towerfields Business Park site.

Tuffen and Hickman pleaded guilty to a series of offences including the storage, treatment and disposal of waste without an environmental permit. In Feburary they received suspended prison sentences of two years and 18 months respectively, and were also each sentenced to 200 hours unpaid work.

The court heard that the company, which was dissolved in May 2010, was in financial difficulty around late 2008 and had been falsely advertised as a specialist asbestos waste transport and disposal company. Prosecutor Sailesh Mehta told the court that between April 2008 and February 2009, 427,000 went through the business.

Underpinning these credentials was a supply of what appeared to be legitimate invoices and consignment notes showing that the hazardous waste had been taken to and signed for by the Oxfordshire landfill site, but these were proven to be false.

Guilty

The hazardous waste had in fact been dumped in several areas around Anglia and the South East, including Stevenage, Stanford Le Hope, Tilbury and Swanscombe.

On Friday (26 July) the two men were fined 3,000 each for failing their duty of care to stop fly-tipping by a sub-contracted driver. The driver in question, Moses Benjamin Brede, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing in February to dumping five loads of waste asbestos. He was sentenced to 12 months in prison for each of his five crimes to run concurrently and suspended for two years. He was also instructed to pay 500 contribution towards costs.

Tuffen was also ordered to pay 30,557 and Hickman 16,158 from the proceeds of their crimes. Both were told to pay 13,841 each as compensation to the landowners who cleaned up the site. AND, they were also warned that they could face jail if they failed to pay the proceeds within 6 months of the penalties being issued.

Environment Agency environmental crime team leader, Lesley Robertson, said: We take the problems of illegal waste very seriously.

During this investigation we worked in partnership with other agencies including Stevenage borough council, Thurrock council, Essex Police and other regions within the Environment Agency to gather evidence against those believed to be committing these offences.

Warning

This case was made worse by the hazardous nature of the waste, namely three types of asbestos, which was being illegally stored at the site in Benfleet, further aggravated by the fact that the company the defendants operated claimed to be specialist contractors for the disposal of asbestos waste, preying on others trustworthiness.

This case should also be a warning to legitimate businesses, to ensure that they fulfil their duty of care when employing a business or person to dispose of their waste, including auditing any paperwork that they should receive for the disposal of the waste – dont be afraid to ask the necessary questions.