Businessman given suspended jail term after leaving £2.5m mess

Gordon Pearson Anderson, 66, of Moelydd Road, Trefonen, near Oswestry, must also do 250 hours’ unpaid work. He was disqualified from being a company director for 15 years.

Paperback Collection and Recycling, in liquidation, was fined a nominal £1 on each charge after the firm admitted seven environmental permit contraventions.

Judge Nicola Jones at Caernarfon Crown Court told Anderson, who pleaded guilty to three breaches of environmental permit controls, he had sought to “divert and minimise” his role. There was an “element of arrogance and sheer disregard for the environmental permit,” for financial gain.

The judge said: “You are a man with considerable experience in the waste control business.”

Anderson had leased premises and 17,000 tons of baled waste – some stacked too high and close – were allegedly stored at Deeside industrial park, in excess of the limit of 12,000 tons. “A fire at that site would have had the potential to be extremely dangerous,” Judge Jones said.

He had also taken out a lease at the old Anglesey Aluminium site at Penrhos, Anglesey, where 500 tons of waste could be stored, but an estimated 8,686 tons had been left.

Prosecutor Christopher Stables, for Natural Resources Wales, said the defendants were well aware of the risks of fires. At the Penrhos site the NRW found unlawfully stored bales of waste plastic and other waste in a building. He said the site was used for waste transported from Deeside.

But Samantha Riggs, defending Anderson, said: “He prides himself on being professional. He tried to do things properly. This isn’t someone deliberately setting out to avoid properly managing waste.”

She described him as a “broken man.”

Sian Williams, head of operations for Natural Resources Wales in North Wales, said after the case: “We hope the outcome of this case will send out a positive message to the waste industry, that Natural Resources Wales supports legitimate business and will not tolerate those who seek to profit by breaking the law, risking harm to local communities or damaging the environment.”

“In this instance, the operator illegally stored 8,686 tons of plastic waste and breached several environmental permit conditions, demonstrating a sustained disregard for the environment and our natural resources.

“Wherever possible, we always try to work with operators to make sure their activities comply with the law, but sometimes taking legal action is required.

“We take waste crime seriously and it is essential that we take action in such cases to protect people and the environment, as well as safeguarding the sector for those operators who do comply with the law.

“This case demonstrates clearly that anyone trying to take shortcuts in the waste industry will be pursued through the courts where necessary.”