3-Apr-2006 - A scrapyard owner
was sentenced to 150 hours community punishment
at Chesterfield Magistrates Court on Friday 31
March, after pleading guilty to offences relating
to pollution of the environment.
Leonard Smith, 43, of Whittington
Moor, Chesterfield, was also ordered to contribute
£300 towards the costs of the Environment
Agency, which brought the case.
The court heard that the offences
related to the End Of Life Vehicle Regulations,
which state that scrapyards storing vehicles with
potentially polluting substances such as oil,
batteries and antifreeze need a waste management
licence.
Trevor Cooper, prosecuting for the Environment
Agency, told the court that officers visited Smith’s
car scrapyard, JW Hardy Motor Dismantlers, at
Dunston Road, Chesterfield, on 2 November 2004,
and found over 60 vehicles, of which half contained
pollutants.
Officers were particularly concerned
that oil was contaminating the ground, which was
mainly unsealed, and that there was a risk of
pollution to the adjacent Ridding Brook at the
southern boundary of the site, with cars stored
next to the watercourse.
In mitigation it was said that
Smith was unable to read or write, and that he
had started the business with a high degree of
ignorance.
In sentencing the District Judge
said that it was impossible for him to impose
the sort of fine the offence deserved, that the
site was a dreadful eyesore, and that it must
have been apparent that it was causing damage
to the environment.
