Directors of a firm responsible for abandoning 2,000 tonnes of rubbish in Dudley have been found guilty of waste crimes.
The huge waste pile at Rowanoak Waste Services in Shaw Road gave off a smell likened to rotting vegetables and sewage.
People working nearby described the stench as ‘stomach churning’ and said they felt physically ill as a result of the odour coming from the site.
Dust also impacted neighbouring businesses, covering customers’ cars and business vehicles, while debris from the waste blocked the guttering and affected air conditioning at nearby factory units.
The activities on site were in breach of the conditions of the permit, forcing The Environment Agency to take action.
However enforcement notices were ignored and the site was abandoned in 2016, with a significant amount of waste left behind.
Environment Agency officers worked with the landowners and the waste was finally removed in March 2017.
On Wednesday (June 5), jurors at Wolverhampton Crown Court convicted the directors of Kingswinfor based Rowanoak Waste Services Limited for their failure to comply with permit conditions and enforcement notices at the site, known as Rowanoak.
The firm and its director, Kevin Allan, were found guilty on all counts in relation to failures to make sure the Shaw Road site was operated in accordance with the conditions of the permit and compliance notices.
Allan, 60, Roundway Down, Perton, was a director of Rowanoak from November 2013 until he resigned in March 2015. He was reappointed on the in May 2015 before he resigned again two months later.
Randle Hawkins - who was a director of Rowanoak between August 2015 and November 2018 - was found guilty of non-compliance with a revocation notice but cleared of four other charges relating to the breach of permit conditions and enforcement notice.
Hawkins,59, of Quarry Brow, Upper Gornal, stated during the trial that he was unaware that he was a director at the relevant times.
Mak Waste Ltd, based in Bloxwich , and its director 28-year-old director Brian McIntosh, of Adams Hill, Bartley Green, had previously admitted their part in the failure to comply with the conditions of the permit on the site and the continual failure to action requests for compliance made by Environment Agency officers.
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Edward Venables (formerly Boulton), also a director of Mak Waste Ltd, was found not guilty of all three charges against him.
Sentencing will take place later this year.
Speaking after the case, a spokesman for the Environment Agency said: “Waste crime is a serious offence with tough penalties.
"It can damage the environment, blight local communities and undermine those who operate legally.
"We aim to disrupt, prevent and investigate illegal waste activity and take enforcement action where we can. In this case, those found guilty, by being in breach of their permit, continued to operate their site illegally and continually ignored the Environment Agency’s efforts to reduce the waste.
“The Environment Agency use all the enforcement powers available where we believe environmental offences have been committed.
“Allan, McIntosh and Hawkins have shown a complete disregard for the local community, subjecting local businesses to months of misery by illegally and inappropriately and storing large quantities of waste on the site.”
