At York Magistrates’ Court on Friday (August 18), Michael Gray, 49, of Upper Austby Farm in Langbar, pleaded guilty to failing to correctly dispose of waste under the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
The case was investigated by our regulatory services environmental protection team. The charges related to waste Gray was employed to collect from a property, which was transferred to another property and subsequently fly-tipped.
The defendant was required to pay a fine of £2,475, a victim surcharge of £247.50 and a contribution to our costs of £867.20.
Executive member for managing our environment, Cllr Greg White, said: “This case should be a lesson to everyone that they must ensure whoever they give their waste to is authorised to accept it. They must also obtain documentation detailing what waste has been transferred, to whom and when.
“If people do not carry out these checks, they are risking the waste being fly-tipped and them being prosecuted. We are pleased with the outcome of the hearing which demonstrates how seriously we take fly-tipping offences in the county.”
Gray was convicted after failing to check to see if people who disposed of waste had an upper tier waste carrier’s licence, or a scrap metal collectors’ licence. The defendant also did not obtain a waste transfer document to show what waste had been taken and by whom, contrary to Section 34(1)(c) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
In February last year, the council’s environmental protection team started investigating Gray, when officers were notified of waste comprising of a fridge freezer, sink and drainer, tiles and cabling fly-tipped on land off Hardings Lane, Langbar. Within the tip was evidence which linked the waste to a property in Embsay.
An investigation found that the owner of the property had employed Gray to remove the waste. He admitted to removing waste and transporting it to his property at Upper Austby Farm in Langbar.
Gray then paid two people £50 to remove the waste from his vehicle and to take it away.
Anybody who witnesses fly-tipped waste or is offered waste or scrap collection services from unlicensed individuals is encouraged to report the case.