Suspended sentence for Victory Skips boss
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Haulier also has his skip truck seized and is fined £23,784 for running an illegal waste operation
By Roger Brown
THE BOSS OF Derbyshire operator Victory Skips has received a suspended prison sentence, had his skip truck seized, and ordered to pay £23,784 costs for running an illegal waste operation.
In an Environment Agency (EA) prosecution, Derby Crown Court was told that, following complaints from residents, the EA began an investigation in 2009 into illegal waste activities at Wibbersley Farm and nearby Meadow Farm near Buxton, both operated by the boss of the business Timothy Birchenough, 53. Covert surveillance was carried out at both sites.
On several occasions, environment oficers witnessed waste – including builder’s rubble, plastic bags, mattresses and sofas – being brought into Wibbersley Farm and dumped on the land.
Waste at Wibbersley Farm was burnt as a way of disposing of it and to recover the metals, which were then sold. Oficers also saw vehicles on site, including Birchenough’s blue skip lorry. The offences had been committed over a 14-month period. Large quantities of rubble and soil waste, contaminated with plastic and metal were also tipped next to a stream at Meadow Farm and later covered in topsoil.
Birchenough had been imprisoned for similar offences in February 2009 and was released in July 2009.
Within weeks, he had started his waste operation again.
Prosecuting, Nicholas Cole said Birchenough had never had a licence or permit to dispose of waste at either site and that he gained a inancial advantage by not having to pay the tipping fees at a properly licensed site and not paying for a permit.
In mitigation, Birchenough said there was no evidence that noxious or toxic waste had been dumped and that not all the waste had come from his business. He pleaded guilty to three counts of illegally operating a waste site at Wibbersley Farm and Meadow Farm, under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2007 and 2010.
Birchenough was given a 51-week prison sentence, suspended for two years, banned from handling waste at the two sites and ordered to undertake 180 hours of unpaid work. His truck is now subject to a forfeiture order and will be seized and disposed of by the EA.
Sentencing, Judge Burns said: “You have been ined and sent to prison before for similar offences.
“It is not necessary to send you straight to prison as that would cost the community more money and I think you can be controlled in other ways.” Following the case, Peter Rutherford, environmental crime team leader at the EA, said: “Timothy Birchenough has demonstrated a complete disregard for the environment and local community.
“The courts have recognised the seriousness of the offences that have been committed in the sentence that they have passed.
“I would urge companies and individuals in the Buxton area to ensure that their waste contractors are suitably authorised to transport and dispose of their waste. Anyone found to be using Birchenough’s services in the future may be liable to prosecution.”