Mike
Dunning - 6-Nov-2006 - A Dorset building contractor
who assaulted Environment Agency staff after being
asked about a waste offence has today been ordered
to pay £1,837 in fines and costs for dumping
demolition waste on land at Compton Abbas. The
case was brought by the Environment Agency.
Victor Smith and his company,
Bernacross Contractors Limited, of Skinners Farm,
Stoke Wake, Blandford Forum, Dorset, appeared
before West Dorset magistrates sitting at Blandford.
On Februrary 20, 2006 an Environment
Agency officer was told that a large pile of demolition
waste had been tipped in Drones Lane, Compton
Abbas. After speaking to a local farmer, Victor
Smith was contacted and became extremely angry
about being asked about the incident.
Within 45 minutes he arrived
at the Environment Agency offices in Blandford
and assaulted two of the staff. He was later arrested
by police for assault and for offences under the
Environmental Protection Act 11000.
During the subsequent interview,
Victor Smith admitted completing the demolition
work, approaching local farmers and offering rubble,
hiring in tractors and dump trailers, transporting
it to the site and dumping it with no waste transfer
notes issued.
Victor Smith, of Skinners Farm,
Stoke Wake, Blandford Forum was fined £1,400
for his role as a director in the depositing of
the waste. He was also ordered to pay £437
costs.
The company, Bernacross Contractors
Limited, of Cornwall Road, Dorchester, Dorset,
pleaded guilty to two offences of depositing controlled
waste on land without a waste management licence
contrary to Section 33 (1)(a) of the Environmental
Protection Act 11000 and failing to supply a written
description of the waste when it was transferred
contrary to Section 34 (1) (c) (ii}.
The company was fined £1,400
on each charge and ordered to pay £1,000
costs.
‘Victor Smith was responsible
for illegally dumping demolition waste on this
site including bricks, concrete, wood, plastic
and stone bitumen. His attitude throughout the
investigation was extremely aggressive and this
led to him assaulting Environment Agency staff,’
said John Wiles, for the Environment Agency.
The magistrate chairman
said, ‘If he is doing this for a living he should
know the rules and should live by the rules.’
