Firm linked to O’Grady is granted O-licence
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By Roger Brown
A TRANSPORT FIRM with links to illegal waste dumping haulage boss William O’Grady has been granted a new O-licence for 13 vehicles and six trailers.
At a public inquiry in Welshpool on 1 February, Caernarfon-based haulier Gwynedd Skip and Plant Hire – directors listed as O’Grady’s daughter Stacey O’Grady and Rhys Morgan – was granted a licence with undertakings attached by Nick Jones, trafic commissioner (TC) for Wales.
In December 2011, William O’Grady, who at the time was run ning Gwynedd Skip Hire and WM O’Grady (Haulage and Plant Hire), was found guilty of 12 charges of illegally dumping about 29,000 tonnes of construction waste at two sites near Caernarfon, Gwynedd, following a three-week trial at Chester Crown Court.
O’Grady was handed a year’s suspended sentence and ordered to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work.
The court was told how the construction waste dumped by O’Grady’s companies on land at Bryn Awelon, Llanfaglan, in 2007, and at his home at Tyddyn Whisgin, Caeathro, in 2008, included bricks, wood and glass. Bryn Awelon is a site of special scientiic interest.
O’Grady accepted there was waste on the site but said neither he nor his companies had put it there. The illegal dumping saved O’Grady up to £1.5m in charges.
In November 2011, Stacey O’Grady bought Gwynedd Skip Hire and sister business WM O’Grady (Haulage & Plant Hire) from administrators, in a pre-pack deal. The TC revoked the O-licence of WM O’Grady (Haulage and Plant Hire) at last week’s inquiry.