A record total of £284,000 in fines was handed down to companies and individuals by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) in 2014/15.

The statistic was highlighted in SEPA’s Enforcement Report 2014-2015, published on Thursday (14 January), which shows that the majority of actions taken by the Scottish regulator fall under the waste regime.

Enforcement options that SEPA has available range from issuing informal advice and guidance letters to the use of final warning letters and statutory notices and reporting to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service for criminal sanction.

Thirty-six cases were referred to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service over the course of the financial year, 116 statutory notices were served and 141 final warning letters issued. These all represent increases on the figures for 2012/13 and 2013/14, with the number of statutory notices in particular rising from 93 to 116.

Of the 36 cases referred to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service in 2014/15, 15 (41 per cent) were under the waste regime, with a further five under the transfrontier shipment of waste regime and four for combined offences. One case came under the umbrella of producer responsibility.

Waste offences also provided the majority of the 116 cases resulting in statutory notices (77 cases, 66 per cent) and the 141 final warning letters (87 cases, 62 per cent).

Convictions

A total of 18 cases across the year resulted in convictions, with one custodial sentence being handed down (six months’ prison sentence and a fine). Thirteen cases resulted in a fine alone, while two community service orders totalling 360 hours were given to defendants. There was also one admonishment (a conviction with no fine or imprisonment) and one six-month restriction of liberty order, where the defendant had to be at home between the hours of 9pm and 5am.

Of these 18 convictions, 11 (61 per cent) were under the waste regime, with the other seven falling under the water regime.

The 14 fines handed out over the course of the year totalled £284,400, the highest amount since 2010/11, when the Enforcement Report was first published. Though 2012/13 had a higher number of prosecutions, (37 compared to 2014/15’s 36), SEPA investigations last year accrued £25,390 more in fines.

The average fine over the year was £20,314, compared to £10,965 in 2013/14, £16,188 in 2012/13 and £5,926 in 2011/12. This rose to £28,583 when only considering cases against corporate bodies as opposed to individuals.

These figures are skewed somewhat by a £195,000 fine handed out in February 2015 to the former director of Earthmover Tyre Recycling Ltd, Paul Cook, after he was found guilty of illegally depositing 114,000 tyres and solid waste less than 300 metres from Wishaw General Hospital in North Lanarkshire. That was the only fine over £20,000 to be handed out.

International recognition

Commenting on the enforcement statistics, SEPA’s Executive Director, Calum MacDonald, said: “Tackling environmental crime is a top priority for SEPA. It puts our environment and communities at risk, and undermines legitimate businesses. New enforcement powers, enhanced intelligence gathering, and working in partnership with other enforcement agencies are all helping us make significant progress, and SEPA is now rightly recognised internationally as a leader in addressing environmental crime.”

In November, MacDonald was elected as chairperson of an advisory board to Interpol’s Environmental Compliance and Enforcements Committee (ECEC). The advisory board’s role is to facilitate and provide strategic context to the advice that ECEC gives to Interpol’s General Secretariat regarding the prevention and suppression of environmental crime.

Terry A’Hearn, Chief Executive of SEPA, added: “I am delighted that SEPA's efforts have been recognised by Interpol in Calum's appointment to this high profile international role. Environmental crime is a blight on our society, a threat to our environment, and an ongoing problem for legitimate business, and we are determined to do all we can to eradicate it.”

More details on the enforcement actions taken by SEPA in 2014/15 can be found in the agency’s Enforcement Report.