Property Wise Facilities Management Ltd pleaded guilty at High Wycombe Magistrates Court on 8 November 2017 to offences relating to waste dumped illegally on the former Wycombe Sports Centre land at Handy Cross, High Wycombe.
The court heard that on 25 April 2017, investigators from the Waste Partnership for Buckinghamshire examined a huge amount of waste dumped illegally at Handy Cross.
The waste had come from many sources, but part of it was found to have originated from refurbishment work on a children’s nursery in Kilburn, North London. The work had been carried out by the defendant, Property Wise Facilities Management Ltd.
When interviewed, a company director admitted that an unknown third-party waste carrier had been used to remove the waste from the nursery refurbishment job. Although the company did not know the waste would be dumped illegally, insufficient checks had been made of the waste carrier’s credentials.
“These criminal operators created a mountain of waste on public land, leaving the clean-up bill to the council taxpayer”
The Magistrates fined the company £5,000 and ordered it to pay £936 compensation and prosecution costs and a victim surcharge of £76 – making a total to pay of £6,012.
Buckinghamshire County Council Cabinet Member for Planning & Environment Bill Chapple OBE, speaking on behalf of the Waste Partnership for Buckinghamshire, said: “This is a very good example of how naïve people and companies can be when unscrupulous waste carriers offer to remove waste on the cheap. These criminal operators created a mountain of waste on public land, leaving the clean-up bill to the council taxpayer.
“If your business fails to check whether a waste carrier is registered, or omits to obtain a valid waste transfer note for the removal – and then your rubbish ends up dumped illegally – you will be held to have failed in your duty of care.
Be warned – we have a zero tolerance for waste crime in Bucks and a very high prosecution rate – so using an illegal waste carrier could land you in court, with payments far greater than the cost of a genuine waste firm.”
This case was investigated and prosecuted by Buckinghamshire County Council working on behalf of the Waste Partnership for Buckinghamshire. Since November 2003 the Waste Partnership for Buckinghamshire has secured over 630 convictions against individuals and companies for illegal dumping and related offences.
This has resulted in a significant saving to the Buckinghamshire taxpayer over the period, principally through reduced removal and disposal costs.
