A waste transport and storage firm and its boss have been ordered to pay nearly £110,000 for illegal activity at its Kidderminster operating centre. Gary Shorthouse and his firm GR Shorthouse admitted unlawfully storing, treating and disposing of waste without an environmental permit between 2018 and November 2019. At Worcester Crown Court, 58-year-old Shorthouse was fined £68,000 and ordered to pay costs of £33,395. He was also disqualified from acting as a director for five years. His company was fined £8,500.
The company also operated a skip-hire business, bringing waste to the site for financial gain. The waste was then sorted, with some being burned, metal being sold for scrap, and the remainder being sent for legitimate disposal elsewhere.
In June 2019, Environment Agency officers found evidence that the site was being used for the storage of scrap metal, burning of wood waste, and unauthorised use of construction and demolition waste. The waste activity was unlawful because neither the company nor Shorthouse held an environmental permit. The court heard that Shorthouse had been convicted of a similar offence in 2003, and received a formal written warning from the Environment Agency for offending in 2008. The judge said the offending amounted to an intentional and flagrant breach of the law.
