Three waste firms from Kent and one director have been fined a total of £233,670 after pleading guilty to illegally depositing waste on golf courses and farms in Kent and East Sussex.

On Tuesday (30 October), Countrystyle Recycling Limited, FGS AGRI Limited and the owner and director of both companies, Trevor Heathcote, pleaded guilty to multiple charges relating to the illegal deposit of waste between January and July 2011 in Kent and East Sussex.

As part of the same investigation, haulier Mark Luck Limited from Swanley, Kent, had previously pleaded guilty at Chatham Magistrates’ Court on 28 August 2012 to depositing waste screening fines, the waste produced by the processing of skip and dustcart waste, from two Countrystyle sites on a golf course using fraudulent Duty of Care notes.

The Duty of Care notes described the waste as soils, and was therefore allowed to be tipped at Deansgate Golf Course at Hoo St Werburgh, near Strood for £60 a lorry. Lorry loads of screening fines usually cost between £275 and £330 to dispose of at appropriate landfills. Mark Luck Limited was fined £26,700 and ordered to pay costs of £4,910 and a £15 victim fine.

Due to the fraudulent paperwork, Countrystyle Recycling Limited was only recently identified as being the source of the fines and, at the court hearing at Canterbury Magistrates’ Court last week, the Environment Agency (EA) prosecutors said that EA staff had warned the company about failing to register the fines correctly. The EA also said it found illegally deposited fines at the Folkstone and Strood waste transfer stations on three separate occasions between January and July.

The Environment Agency investigation subsequently discovered several instances of screening fines being removed from Countrystyle’s Folkestone site without the correct paperwork being completed, without the correct rate being paid for the disposal of the waste and without waste being correctly identified.

According to the EA, between May and June 2011, Trevor Heathcote oversaw 29 lorry loads of screening fines, ‘inaccurately described as aggregates on the Duty of Care documentation’, deposited on a farm next to the River Beult and spread between an arable field and ponds.

Picture: EA Officer Jamie Lloyd sampling the waste soils near the river

FGS AGRI Limited had registered an exemption with the EA to import waste to the farm for use in construction projects, but screening fines were not included in this. Analysis confirmed that this waste had the ‘potential to pollute the ground and watercourse’ and was removed.

Inaccurately labelled waste was also tipped at a waste processing site in Rye, East Sussex.

Jamie Hamilton, the investigating Environment Agency Officer, said: “The Environment Agency will not tolerate large waste companies failing in their Duty of Care, manipulating their paperwork or illegally depositing polluting waste for financial gain.

“Waste crime puts the environment and human health at risk and undermines legitimate businesses. The waste industry is well aware of its responsibilities with regards to the disposal of waste screening fines. Companies that subsequently make the decision to use sites such as golf courses, farms and inappropriate waste sites for the cheap disposal of such waste should not be surprised when they are prosecuted.”

Both Countrystyle Recycling and Trevor Heathcote pleaded guilty to Duty of Care offences associated with the movement of screening fines at their waste transfer stations at Folkestone and Strood. In total, the three firms and Mr Heathcote were fined £233,670. Countryside Recycling was fined £46,000 and was ordered to pay £7,500 of costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

FGS AGRI Limited was fined £40,000 and was ordered to pay £7,500 and a £15 victim surcharge, while Trevor Heathcote, director and owner of Countrystyle Recycling and FGS AGRI, bore the bulk of the fine, being required to pay £86,000 in fines, £15,000 in costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

Internal procedures at these companies will now be ‘strengthened’ and Trevor Heathcote will attend a series of internal and external training programmes, including one provided by the Waste Management Industry Training and Advisory Board.

Read more about the court case.