A man from Lancaster has been fined and ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work for his part in the operation of an illegal waste site.
Stephen Bryce, 45, from Lancaster was sentenced at Preston Crown Court, and given a 12-month community order requiring 150 hours of unpaid work and ordered to pay £6,000 in costs, after being convicted of operating an unpermitted waste facility and submitting falsified consignment notes between January 2020 and October 2021.
The Environment Agency also secured convictions against Cats and Dust Limited, and its director Cavin Mears, for operating waste sites without the required environmental permits and for falsifying documents connected to hazardous waste disposal.
During the hearing, Cats and Dust Ltd was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £6,000 in costs. Cavin Mears, 45, from Euxton, Chorley received a 12-month community order requiring 200 hours of unpaid work and was ordered to pay £5,360 in compensation to the Environment Agency, along with £6,000 in costs.
The court heard that Mears and Bryce were previously directors of RF Recycling Ltd, a company which operated a regulated facility without an environmental permit at Unit 6, Twin Lakes Industrial Estate, Croston, Lancashire between January 2020 and June 2020.
Following a visit from the Environment Agency in October 2021, RF Recycling ceased trading. However, Cats and Dust Ltd commenced trading immediately afterwards, operating unlawfully from a separate unit within the same trading estate until January 2022.
Cavin Mears, who was a director of RF Recycling Ltd, is the sole director of Cats and Dust Ltd. Stephen Bryce resigned as a director of Cats and Dust Ltd in September 2021, shortly before the company began trading.
During the sentencing, His Honour Judge Mathieson said both men had long experience in the waste industry, including work with hazardous materials, and therefore should have been fully aware of their legal responsibilities.
He described their conduct as reckless at the outset, but later deliberate and financially motivated, with falsified paperwork used to conceal their actions. He added that their disregard for regulations demonstrated that they “didn’t care about obligations and didn’t care about the impact on people, property or the environment.”
Shannon Nicholson, Environmental Crime Team Leader at the Environment Agency said: “This case shows that those who attempt to profit from waste crime will be held to account.
‘’Handling hazardous materials without the correct permits is a serious offence which can put communities and the environment at risk, while also undercutting legitimate businesses.
‘’By continuing operations despite warnings and by falsifying paperwork, these defendants demonstrated a blatant disregard for the law.”
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