Neil John Spooner fine for enviro-crime

Neil Spooner has been fined for allowing waste to be dumped on his farm. A court heard how hospital waste was among the items found when environmental health inspectors visited Spooner’s property near Margaretting.

The man’s farm became a dump when he allowed waste, including medical items, to be tipped and stored there without an environmental permit.

It would be of great interest to see evidence of quite how much of these “medical items” were identified and what if any evidence existed to identify these as being of hospital origin.

This possibly exaggerated claim would be in accord with the screaming headlines issued by the Environment Agency when containers of waste were returned from South America that were not adequate to justify classification as any healthcare or clinical wastes resulting in an embarrassing climb down by the Agency.

However, in the present case, the site was unlicensed to receive wastes of any kind and the entire operation illegal. Thus, Neil John Spooner was fined £2,000 for two offences at Little Tressells Farm, The Tye, Margaretting, Essex and was ordered to pay full costs of £2,900 by Chelmsford Crown Court.

The court heard that a significant amount of mixed waste was deposited at the farm and a lagoon had been filled in with chopped waste plastics.

During an interview Spooner claimed that he did not know that this type of waste was being deposited there, as for part of the time he was working in London when it was tipped by three unnamed men. Spooner said that he only asked them for stony material to make a track for a paddock.

He said he had been quoted up to £500,000 to clear the rubbish and the house had been devalued by £1.5 million.

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/news/149789.aspx?month=9&year=2013&sector=Waste&persona=Prosecution

http://www.brentwoodweeklynews.co.uk/news/chelmsfordnews/10681657.Man_fined_for_allowing_dumping_on_farm/

 

 

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