Following the abandoning of nearly 2,000 tonnes of waste at Shaw Road, Dudley in 2016, the Environment Agency has successfully brought the responsible parties to account.
HHJ Kershaw has sentenced Kevin Allan and Brian McIntosh to suspended prison sentences, as well as unpaid work. Additionally, Randle Hawkins was ordered to complete unpaid work under the supervision of the Probation Service.
In June 2019, jurors at Wolverhampton Crown Court convicted the directors of Rowanoak Waste Services Limited for their failure to comply with permit conditions and enforcement notices at the Rowanoak site.
Although the Environment Agency used various enforcement tools to try and bring the site back into compliance, those operating the site failed to act on the provided advice and guidance, before the site was abandoned with a significant amount of waste left in situ in 2016.
Environment Agency officers worked with the new landowners to remove the waste by March 2018. Employees of nearby businesses described the smell from the site as ‘stomach churning’ and felt physically ill as a result. Dust impacted nearby businesses as it covered customer cars and business vehicles, while debris from waste pules blocked guttering and affected the air conditioning of nearby factory units.
Rowanoak Waste Services Limited and director Kevin Allan were found guilty on all counts relating to the illegal waste activities at Shaw Road. The company was fined £25,000 and Kevin Allan, who showed no remorse for his actions during the trial, received 12 months’ imprisonment suspended for 12 months and was ordered to complete 100 hours’ unpaid work. He was also ordered to pay £40,000 towards the prosecution costs and disqualified from acting as a company director for three years, taking into consideration his age and previous good character.
Mak Waste and its director Brian McIntosh previously admitted their part in the failure to comply with the conditions of the site’s permit and continued failure to action compliance requests. The company was fined £18,000 and Mr McIntosh was sentenced to 10 months’ imprisonment suspended for 12 months, as well as 150 hours’ unpaid work. He was also ordered to pay £1,200 prosecution costs and disqualified from being a director for five years.
Randle Hawkins was found guilty of deliberately failing to comply with a revocation notice, and was ordered to complete 100 hours’ unpaid work and pay £1,000 towards prosecution costs. He was earlier cleared of four other related charges. Edward Venables, a Mak Waste director, was found not guilty of all three charges against him.
The Environment Agency officer in charge of the investigation commented: “Waste crime is a serious offence with tough penalties. It can damage the environment, blight local communities and undermine those who operate legally. We aim to disrupt, prevent and investigate illegal waste activity and take enforcement action where we can. In this case, those found guilty, by being in breach of their permit, continued to operate their site illegally and continually ignored the Environment Agency’s efforts to reduce the waste.
“Allan, McIntosh and Hawkins have shown a complete disregard for the local community, subjecting local businesses to months of misery by illegally and inappropriately storing large quantities of waste on the site.”
IMAGE CREDIT: Environment Agency
