A man who operated an illegal car-breaking business in Cornwall has been ordered to pay £5,484 in fines and costs.

Bodmin Magistrates’ Court heard on Friday (29 January), how for two years James Darke, 28, had used unpermitted sites for his JapScrap company, and that they were ‘unsightly with a clear risk of pollution’.

Darke used sites in St Cleer between July and September 2013 and Bodmin between March 2014 and March 2015 to deposit, keep and break waste vehicles without an environmental permit.

Officers from the Environment Agency (EA) told the court that all car-breaking locations require environmental permits as the activity poses a significant risk to the environment, ‘even on a small scale’.

EA investigation

The EA was first alerted to the illegal car-breaking activity in June 2013, and found that Darke had no environmental permits for the St Cleer site. Further investigation found that Darke was selling parts taken from the waste cars online, with much of the business being done through Facebook.

Darke was given guidance on how to legitimately run the business and agreed to comply with the regulations in the future. EA officers say that he was offered a caution but did not respond, and further investigation in March 2014 showed that he had moved from St Cleer to the Bodmin site and had resumed illegal activity with a similar business there.

Darke was again given a chance to accept a caution in January 2015, but once more did not respond. The EA told the court the offences had been deliberate and driven by financial motives.

Appearing at the court, Darke admitted two offences of knowingly operating a facility that deposited, kept and broke waste vehicles without an environmental permit. He was found to be in breach of regulations 12 and 38 of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) regulations 2010, and was fined £640 and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £64 and costs of £4,780.

A spokesperson for the Environment Agency said: “Darke was aware, after the first investigation, of what was required. He did not respond to the formal caution offer and simply relocated his car-breaking business and carried on, without a permit, until caught again.

“Breaking vehicles without an environmental permit poses significant risk of pollution, and Darke had ignored several warnings, and then moved from one site to another.”

EA working on illegal waste sites

The EA consistently works to tackle illegal waste sites, although a corporate scorecard for the second quarter of the 2015/16 financial year showed that the regulator was significantly missing targets to clamp down on high-risk illegal operations.

From a baseline of 272 in 2013/14, the EA had set a target of reducing the number of high-risk illegal waste sites in England by 24 per cent to 206 sites by the fourth quarter of this year. However, the number has actually risen to 323, an increase of 19 per cent.

The Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM) is also aiming to help reduce the occurrence of waste infractions by launching its ‘Fighting waste crime’ campaign, which will run throughout 2016.

The campaign is aimed to help businesses ensure that they are complying with waste regulations and avoiding illegal operators and will focus on training and qualifications such as duty of care and technical competence.

More about how the EA tackles waste crime can be found in Resource’s feature article.