Teeside's Scott Bros fined for illegal dumping

A Teesside haulier has been fined £36,000 after illegally dumping almost 4,000 tonnes of waste on the site of a former landfill.

Scott Bros was prosecuted by the Environment Agency (EA) after investigations revealed the company had failed to apply for an environmental permit before depositing waste plastic, metal, bricks and disused road planings on land outside Thorpe Thewles. In 2017, the landowner approached the company, which is authorised to operate 40 HGVs, for help in raising and levelling a 2.5 hectare field with inert soil and stone to improve its use for grazing.

Teesside Magistrates’ court heard how the company had applied for conditional planning approval but it had failed to apply for the environmental permit and, following a tip-off, the EA discovered thousands of tonnes had been dumped on the land, some of which needed to be tested to ensure it was not hazardous. The company produced paperwork showing the origin and details of the waste that had been deposited, but enquiries with other companies revealed that considerably more lorry loads of material had been transported there.

The court agreed the company had acted recklessly and stood to gain a significant advantage over a lawfully operated site. In mitigation, the court heard that Scot Bros had a previously unblemished regulatory history. During interview, a director said that the failure to apply for a permit had been an oversight, and that the company had “jumped the gun”. It was fined £36,000 and ordered to pay costs of £6,720.63.