Council hold illegal waste transporter to account

A driver claiming to be a licensed waste carrier has been caught out by environmental action officers.

Andrew Jarrett, of Low Grange Crescent, Belle Isle, was unable to provide the waste carrier’s licence he claimed he had that would allow him to profit from legally transporting scrap metal for disposal.

Nor was he able to produce the waste transfer note for items he said he regularly took to a specialist recycling facility, when required to by council environmental action officers.

As Jarrett could not produce any documentation to back his claims, he’d committed one offence under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and another under the Control of Pollution (Amendment) Act 1989. Fixed penalty notices were issued so Jarrett could avoid a court appearance. Failure to pay these resulted in Jarrett being summoned to appear before magistrates.

Having pleaded guilty, magistrates fined Jarrett a total of £300 and ordered him to pay costs of £200 and a victim surcharge of £15.

Jarrett was originally pulled over as part of a stop and search operation run by the council and West Yorkshire Police in August 2012 when his van was found to contain a number of scrap metal items.

Councillor Mark Dobson, executive member for the environment, said:

“If you don’t have the correct waste carrier’s licence you’re probably not going to be too concerned about disposing of waste properly and safely.

“Unsuspecting customers may employ these people and think they are getting a cheap service but this only ends up costing the council – and the environment – as the waste is often found dumped illegally. Flytipping costs us hundreds of thousands of pounds each year to clean up.

“If you want to employ someone to dispose of your waste, you need to ensure they have the correct licences to do so.

“And if you are unscrupulous enough to try to transport and dispose of waste illegally then we won’t hesitate to take action against you.”