Environment Agency | A Merseyside skip hire boss has been ordered to pay back £250,000 after she was found to have profited from illegal waste crime.
The Environment Agency secured the confiscation order against Patricia Hills, 72, of Redfern Street, Bootle, after she was previously jailed for operating MWM Recycling Ltd illegally.
The confiscation hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act took place at Liverpool Crown Court.
Hills was given three months to pay the order, or she faces up to three years in jail. She was also ordered to pay £25,000 costs.
The hearing followed the conviction of Hills for illegal waste activity. At Liverpool Crown Court in March 2022, she was jailed for a year and banned from being a company director for five years.
In the original case, Mrs. Hills was in control of MWM Recycling Ltd. Following an extensive investigation by the Environment Agency, the company had its environmental permit revoked after a series of breaches and were issued with an enforcement notice to clear the land of waste.
Despite this, waste continued to be stored and illegally burned.
Hills’ son, Mark Hills, 48, of Redfern Street in Bootle, who ran the day-to-day site operations, was jailed for eight months.
The Environment Agency secured a confiscation order against him for £40,000 in December 2024, and this has since been paid.
