Shifnal firm and boss must pay £30,000 over skips of waste - with £130,000 bill to clear site up
A company and its director have been hit with a court bill totalling more than £30,000 for flouting environmental laws.
Environment Agency officers visited Shifnal-based groundwork specialists MJ Curle in January 2015 to carry out an inspection and found 1,700 tonnes of waste, Telford Magistrates Court heard.
The company now faces a £130,000 bill to clear the site.
Officers said they found evidence of a "deliberate and unlawful waste processing and storage operation".
They found a large number of skips containing a variety of waste, including cardboard and green waste.
Other parts of the site in Naird Lane were used for storing and sorting a variety of waste, some of which originated from demolished conservatories. There was also evidence of waste being burned on the site.
The activities required an environmental permit, but the firm never applied for one.
As a result the defendant avoided application and subsistence fees in excess of £14,000.
About 1,700 tonnes of waste was found on the land. To dispose of this legally it will cost MJ Curle approximately £130,000.
Stuart Curle, company director, pleaded guilty at the court on Thursday to operating a regulated facility that was not authorised by an environmental permit, both on behalf of the company and in his capacity as the firm's director.
The offences date between October 15, 2011 and January 13, 2015.
Curle, aged 45, was fined £1,200 and ordered to pay in excess of £25,000 in compensation and costs to the Environment Agency, along with a £120 victim surcharge. The company was also fined £6,600.
The court ordered that the 1,700 tonnes of waste that remains on site is to be removed by July 25.
Under caution, Curle admitted to a range of waste being brought to the site as a result of a business relationship with a local company. He also accepted that MJ Curle had been collecting skips full of waste and once they were transported back to the site, the waste was sorted and stored.
He accepted that the activity required an environmental permit, something which the Environment Agency had warned him about in 2008. The court also heard about the defendant's serious ill-health and financial difficulties.
Speaking after the case, an Environment Agency officer in charge of the investigation said: "When we entered the site in 2015, there was clear evidence of a deliberate and unlawful waste processing and storage operation.
"Stuart Curle was previously spoken to by Environment Agency officers about the need to obtain an environmental permit to undertake this activity.
"Unfortunately he failed to heed that guidance.
"We are pleased with the outcome of this case and we will actively bring prosecutions where deliberate unlawful processing and storage is identified."
