Environment Agency officers at the Springwood Trading site

The Director of an illegal waste transfer station has been sentenced to 25 months in prison, after having been found guilty of running a waste site without an environmental permit or planning permission, and for failing to show up to court on a previous occasion.

Mark Eric Butterworth, of Mytholmroyd, Hebden Bridge, had been handed a two-year custodial term by Bradford Crown Court in May, but failed to turn up at court on the day of sentencing. As such, Judge Thomas QC issued a warrant for his arrest, and Butterworth was apprehended and brought before Bradford Crown Court to be sentenced on Tuesday (1 October),

Case details

According to the prosecutors, the Environment Agency (EA), investigations held by EA officers in 2010 and 2012 found that Springwood Trading – run on land owned by Butterworth – was illegally operating as a waste transfer station at a site on Pudsey Road.

As a registered waste carrier, the firm was permitted to collect skips of waste for delivery to ‘properly regulated waste sites’, but covert EA surveillance had revealed that waste being taken to and handled at Springwood Mill, despite there being no permit in place for waste management or adequate planning permission.

Investigations further revealed that domestic and industrial waste was being sorted and deposited at the site, as well as being illegally stored at another site at Eldon Street and on public streets.

A trial in March found that the company had saved around £55,000 by ‘avoiding permit application fees, subsistence fees, and installation of protective infrastructure’. At this trial, Butterworth had denied running the firm, claiming that he had not been actively involved with the running of the company at the time of these offences. But key paperwork relating to the company’s operation was found in his bedroom. He also told the court that he did not have the finances to clear the waste from the site.

Butterworth admitted to two counts of knowingly permitting the operation of a waste facility without an appropriate environmental permit. He was also found guilty of four counts of operating a regulated facility without a permit, three counts of depositing controlled waste, and one count of failing to provide waste transfer notes after being served notice to do so.

Bradford Crown Court this week sentenced Butterworth to one month’s imprisonment for failing to attend his sentencing hearing in May, and reinstated the previous 24-month custodial sentence for his waste offences.

Hazardous waste action

The case marks the latest court action taken by the EA against waste criminals, after a chemical supplies company, Regal Rank, was fined £6,000 at Teesside Magistrates Court on Wednesday (30 September), for depositing waste without a permit

The company, based on Eastcote Lane in Harrow, was prosecuted by the Environment Agency (EA), following investigations that took place in April 2012. At this time, EA officers discovered that Regal Rank had sent an illegal shipment of ‘various waste chemicals’ to an unauthorised site in Middlesbrough.

In mitigation, Regal Rank claimed that the offence was not a deliberate breach for commercial gain, but merely resulted from ‘ignorance of the rules’. However, waste companies are legally ‘under obligation’ to ensure that hazardous materials are send to sites with the relevant environmental permit. As such, the company was fined £6,000 for the offence, charged £2,562 in legal costs and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £15.

Speaking after the prosecution, John Crowl, Environmental Crime Officer at the Environment Agency, said: “Hazardous waste crimes are serious offences that will not be tolerated. The laws exist to ensure that operations involving chemicals and other waste substances do not have a detrimental impact on the environment.

“As a business, Regal Rank has a legal duty to ensure that any waste they deal with goes only to fully legitimate and regulated sites. This was a first offence for the company, however the scale of the fine handed out by the court clearly demonstrates the importance of legal compliance.

“Any company thinking of getting involved in hazardous waste must make sure they know the rules and are meeting all of their legal obligations.”

Tackling waste crime report

In related news, the Environmental Services Association Education Trust (ESAET) announced earlier this month, that it has commissioned a new report into how the ‘challenge of increasing levels of waste crime’ can be tackled in the UK.

The body, set up to ‘commission research and promote education across society to better the environment’, has appointed environmental consultancy Eunomia Research & Consulting Ltd to undertake the work, which aims to assess the scale of waste-related crime and ‘evaluate its impacts on business, local communities, public finance and the environment’.

The study will also seek to make recommendations regarding how best to combat waste crime and how to approach regulation and enforcement of waste-related activities.

ESAET’s Trustee Barry Dennis explained: “Combating waste crime is of critical importance to the environment and the waste and resources management industry as it undermines the economics of legitimate, responsible operators. ESAET has commissioned Eunomia to provide recommendations on how best to tackle this problem and we look forward to taking these proposals forward with all interested parties soon after the New Year.”

Read more about ESAET’s waste crime report.