A man has been fined and banned from being a company director for running an illegal waste site, following an investigation by the Environment Agency.
Martin Robert Hindmarsh, 47, of High Street, Stokesley, and his company B8 Waste Management Limited, were fined and ordered to pay costs totalling almost £26,000 for running the illegal waste site in Middlesbrough.
Hindmarsh was also banned from being a company director for two years and ordered to clear the site by the end of the year.
Hindmarsh appeared at Teesside Magistrates’ Court where he pleaded guilty to operating a waste site without a permit at Tame Road in Middlesbrough, failing to produce waste transfer notes, and failing to comply with a notice to clear the site of waste. The company pleaded guilty to operating a waste site without a permit.
The court heard that in May 2021 Hindmarsh submitted a request for advice to the Environment Agency, which indicated he wanted to operate a waste transfer station at the Middlesbrough site. The Agency replied with advice and was clear that activities must not start without an environmental permit in place.
In October the same year, the Environment Agency started to receive reports of vermin and large quantities of waste on the site. Officers attended and although the site was locked they could see around 100 tonnes of mixed commercial and domestic waste, including fridges, freezers and PVC window frames.
There was no environmental permit for the site, meaning it was an illegal operation.
The officers spoke to Hindmarsh and told him to clear the site, giving him numerous opportunities over the next six months to comply, and to also produce waste transfer notes from his activities.
This culminated in an official notice in May 2022 ordering him to clear the site by 24 July. A visit on the 1 August that year saw this had also not been complied with. On 6 December, the Environment Agency issued a second notice ordering that all waste transfer notes be produced.
To date both notices issued by the Environment Agency relating to the clearance of the site and production of waste transfer notes has not been complied with.