The director of a Worcestershire-based recycling business has received a suspended prison sentence after breaching the company's environmental permit conditions.
Pershore, Worcestershire-based Mark Smyth, director at Arrow Gypsum Recycling, was sentenced to 12 months in prison, suspended for 18 months, and received a seven-year ban from being a company director after failing to comply with an enforcement notice from the Environment Agency.
Worcester Crown Court also sentenced Smyth to 200 hours of unpaid work and fined him £10,000.
Investigations in 2015 found that Smyth had abandoned the firm's site in Crucible Business Park, Norton, leaving 29 tonnes of gypsum plasterboard outside and more than 5,000 tonnes inside a building. The firm's environmental permit stated that waste must be stored inside the building to avoid any risk to the environment.
The Environment Agency attempted to speak to Smyth about the breach without success. He also ignored a formal enforcement notice.
Smyth told Worcester Crown Court earlier this month that he had not received the notice, but this was not accepted by the magistrates. They found he did receive the notice and chose to ignore it.
The judge found that Smyth should have stopped accepting waste when he realised the site was full and said he had ignored his responsibilities as a company director.
The £450,000 it cost to clear the site was found to be a serious aggravating feature.
Arrow Gypsum Recycling formerly held an O-licence for five vehicles and five trailers.
