Trio’s jail sentences suspended over illegal waste sites
VAST quantities of waste from oily car scrap, shredded plastics and rubber to asbestos, syringes and bloody bandages were deliberately and illegally dumped for profit, a court has heard.
Dennis Connor and his firm DBC Site Services Ltd paid two landowners in Neath to accept the waste, and in one case steps were taken to actively hide the material by burying it. Thousands of tons of waste – some of it hazardous and polluting – were unlawfully deposited at the former Rhoela aluminium works site and the adjoining estate in the Neath Valley, and at a farm in Skewen.
Connor, along with the landowners Howard Rees and Eurid Leyshon, found themselves in the dock of Swansea Crown Court for their illegal activity following an investigation by environmental watchdog Natural Resources Wales (NRW).
Alexander Greenwood, prosecuting, said that in the spring of 2016 NRW became aware of materials being transported to the site of the former Rheola aluminium works near Resolven in the Neath Valley.
Covert surveillance of the site was carried out, and lorries registered to DBC Site Services 2005 were seen depositing waste. It soon became clear that “large scale landfill operations” were being carried out on the land, which was owned by co-defendant Rees.
Officers visited the site and carried out a detailed examination of the land, including digging test pits and conducting geophysical surveys of what lay beneath the surface. The court heard officers found huge quantities of waste – both in large piles and buried underground – containing a range of materials including scrap yard waste, old furniture, household rubbish, toys, fabrics, fragments of fibreglass, asbestos, and shredded plastics.
Officers also found large amounts of clinical waste at the Rheola site including syringes, blood test vials, incontinence pads, soiled dressings and bandages. Tags recovered from the hospital waste identified it as coming from the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, and in total some 46 tons of such hazardous waste was located.
The court heard the Rheola site is just 50 metres from the Neath Canal, and around 350 metres from the River Neath.
The prosecutor said NRW and South Wales Police then executed a search warrant at Rees’s home, the adjacent Georgian manor known as Rheola House and estate, where they seized paperwork and documents. Further searches were carried out at the DBC offices in Clydach and at Connor’s home address near Morriston, and these led investigators to Pentwyn farm near Skewen, a family business run by the third defendant Leyshon.
A search of this second location uncovered further large quantities of unlawfully dumped waste including shredded plastics and metals, plaster boards, Tarmac, builders’ waste, and oily car scrap.
Neither the Rheola nor the Skewen sites had the appropriate authorisation for storing and dealing with the waste found on them.
The court heard the cost of removing the waste from the Skewen farm alone and properly disposing of it will be around £800,000.
Mr Greenwood said it was the prosecution case that Connor, through his well-established waste disposal company, had instigated the illegal dumping of the waste on both sites, adding: “He knew the business well. He was well-aware of the law. He knew what he was doing was unlawful, and it was maximising profits.” The barrister described the dumping as “deliberate and persistent”.
Dennis Brian Connor, of Pantlasau, Cwmrhydyceirw, Swansea; Howard Geary Rees of Resolven, Neath Valley, and Eurid Huw Leyshon, of Skewen, Neath, had all previously pleaded guilty to environmental offences.
Barrister Christian Jowett, for Connor, said the defendant was remorseful and devastated at the situation he found himself in, and had assisted the NRW investigation. The barrister described the financial situation of Connor’s company – which employs eight people and of which he is the sole director – as “precarious”.
Robin Rouch, for Rees, said the defendant himself had described his conviction as a “fall from grace”. He said his client, a father-of-five who ran a number of demolition businesses, had been “under extreme financial pressures” and had “effectively opened up” the site to DBC. The barrister said the former Rheola aluminium site was now under new ownership while Rheola House and estate had also been sold, and the family would be homeless come January.
Kate Williams, for Leyshon, said Pentwyn was a family farm which was the main source of income for the Leyshons. She said the fatherof-five had not sourced the waste material but had allowed it to be deposited on his land to his own detriment – the land itself now being contaminated with hydrocarbons from the car scrap. The advocate added that the Leyshons were “very much involved in the local community” and had, for example, helped out with the recent flooding in Skewen.
Connor was sentenced to 20 months in prison, suspended for 18 months, and was ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid work in the community. DBC Site Services 2005 Ltd was fined £10,000. The court heard Connor and his company benefited from the criminal activity in the sum of £1,121,554 this comprises not only of payments received but also of costs avoided by not paying to dispose of the waste properly. A Proceeds of Crime Act investigation had found Connor has available assets of £177,908 and the company has assets of £65, 411. Confiscation orders were made in those amounts.
As we reported last week Leyshon and Rees were both sentenced to 16 months in prison, suspended for 18 months. Rees was ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid work and Leyshon 80 hours. Rees must repay £66,841.77 while Leyshon was ordered to repay £108,313.14.