Large fine for attempted illegal asbestos waste disposal
A man from Shardlow has been found guilty of illegally dumping waste on land in Shardlow in December 2021.
Mr Sheagan Frawley of Shardlow Hall, Shardlow was convicted at Southern Derbyshire Magistrates Court of the offence of depositing controlled waste on land without an environmental permit. He received a fine of £2,300, was ordered to pay a £190 victim surcharge plus £2971.36 prosecution costs – a total fine of £5,461.36.
Council officers were alerted to the incident after a complaint. When officers visited the site, they found that broken sections of roofing and guttering had been put into an excavated hole within the grounds of Shardlow Hall. Officers suspected that the material could contain asbestos and so they took samples for later analysis.
When they returned the following day, they found that the material had been partially covered in soil, which led them to believe that this was an attempt to illegally bury the waste.
Analysis of the waste confirmed that it did contain asbestos. It therefore needed to be handled with care and disposed of at a suitable waste disposal site to prevent a risk to human health and the environment.
Under caution, Mr Frawley claimed that he was just storing the waste in the excavated hole before disposing of it at a suitable waste disposal site.
Councillor Stephen Taylor, Chair of the Environment and Development Service Committee said “The Council has remained focused on stopping waste crime for the last four years. Illegal disposal of waste creates a potentially toxic legacy for our children and causes a blight on our countryside.
“The case demonstrates that Council and its officers are totally committed to stamping this out. If Council officers hadn’t acted quickly to gather evidence, then this material would have been buried without any records or safeguards. The result would have been a legacy of buried waste which could have posed a risk to anyone in the future who unwittingly unearthed it.
“Once again it shows how important it is for anybody who disposes of waste to make sure that it’s being handled by a legitimate waste disposal contractor.
“All businesses disposing of waste have a duty of care to do so through contractors who have a Waste Carriers Licence and to a disposal site which is suitably authorised.”
Guidance for businesses on the disposal of hazardous waste is published by the Environment Agency at: Hazardous waste: Overview - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
20 July 2023