Essex waste operator Wayne Mixture has been jailed for 13 months and ordered to pay £5,000 in costs after he “repeatedly ignored” Environment Agency (EA) warnings about depositing, storing, burning and treating waste.
Mixture, 52, had large quantities of commercial and household waste on his site, which included plastics, paper and fabric, as well as construction and demolition waste.
Despite numerous warnings from EA officers, Mixture failed to clear the waste and continued to have illegal bonfires.
Sentencing, Miss Recorder Frost told Mixture he had shown deliberate and wilful continuation of a failure to comply with notices and periods of non-compliance.
She said: “It is clear to me that you had absolutely no intention of complying with the notices. You were defiant against those seeking to enforce.”
Mixture was issued with a court Remediation Order which set out that he must clear the waste from his site by 31 March 2024 or face contempt of court proceedings.
He was also ordered to pay £5,000 costs at Chelmsford Crown Court on 20 January 2023.
By imposing this prison sentence and Remediation Order, it demonstrates how seriously the court views Mr Mixture’s activities.
The court heard how he ran the site at Damases Lane in Boreham between August 2017 and December 2020.
The EA says its officers visited the site numerous times and made every effort to work with Mixture; however, he failed to clear his site and did not provide waste transfer notes to show where his waste had gone as required by law.
Representing the EA, Rebecca Chalkley said Mixture had been given “chance after chance” to clear the waste and to work with the Environment Agency.
Despite this, the site remained a risk to the environment and undermined competitors who operated within the law, the EA says.
Commenting on the sentencing, Lesley Robertson, Enforcement Team Leader for the Environment Agency, said: “Despite the Environment Agency serving statutory notices on Mixture to remove waste from his site, he continued to deposit, store and treat waste illegally without an environmental permit.
“Mixture operated at a distinct commercial advantage, undermining legitimate business with little or no regard for the environment or residents.
“By imposing this prison sentence and Remediation Order, it demonstrates how seriously the court views Mr Mixture’s activities and behaviour.”