The defendants appeared for sentencing at Teesside Crown Court on Monday 20 May for multiple environmental offences spanning across three sites.
Jonathan Guy Brudenell was jailed for two years and ten months. Laura Hepburn was sentenced to two years in prison, suspended for two years, with 150 hours of unpaid work in the community.
Jonathan Waldron was sentenced to 20 months in prison, suspended for two years with requirements of probation supervision, rehabilitation and 150 hours of unpaid work in the community. He was also ordered to pay £9,000 in costs.
The defendants repeatedly ignored Environment Agency advice that their sites posed a persistent fire risk before fires broke out that burned for days.
Hepburn, 44, was the director of Greenology at Liverton, near Loftus while Brudenell was the manager at the time of the offences.
Selective Environmental Solutions Ltd (SESL) and its director Jonathan Waldron, 42, operated on this site with Brudenell before Greenology took over, and also illegally deposited waste at a farm near Whitby.
The court heard the defendants repeatedly ignored Environment Agency advice about the storage and management of waste and the “significant fire risk” posed by the sites.
During sentencing, Greenology (Liverton) was fined £69,000, Greenology (Teesside) was fined £20,000, and SESL was fined £14,666.66.
The court was told that SESL first operated at the Liverton site between December 2018 and February 2019 with Waldron as director, Brudenell in a managerial role, and Hepburn also involved.
SESL registered several waste exemptions, which allow low-level waste activity that does not require an environmental permit, the Environment Agency said.
In January 2019, the Environment Agency said it opened an investigation into SESL as it was immediately in breach of its waste exemption storage limit of 500 tonnes.
The Environment Agency said that after a fallout between the defendants, Hepburn set up Greenology (Liverton) Ltd, which took over the site in February 2019.
They could have been in no doubt that the sites were operating illegally and posed a significant fire risk
Throughout this period, Brudenell continued in a management role using the false name Guy Barker, a fact known by Hepburn, the Environment Agency said.
Waste continued to increase on the site, with the Environment Agency warning about the amount of waste and the fire risk it posed, and taking subsequent enforcement action to have it cleared.
Eventually the site was largely cleared; however, by late 2019, it had quickly been refilled with waste plastic.
On 5 April 2020, a major fire broke out which quickly spread through the baled plastic waste and the building and destroyed the site. The fire burned for nine days with local residents unable to be evacuated because of the Covid-19 national lockdown.
Gary Wallace, area environment manager for the Environment Agency in the North East, said: “All of those sentenced have shown a complete disregard for environmental laws, which are there to protect people and the environment.
“They could have been in no doubt that the sites were operating illegally and posed a significant fire risk, but repeatedly ignored our officers’ warnings about bringing the sites back into compliance and making them safe.”
