Andrew Eyre, 55, of Poppy Field Road, Wootton, Northampton, and Nimesh Patel, 52, of Jasper Walk, Northampton, received suspended sentences at Northampton Crown Court on 3 September 2024.
The duo were running a waste tyre site, Synergy Tyres (Midland) Ltd., at Broad March Industrial Estate without an environmental permit. Tyres were stored in an unsafe manner, creating a significant fire risk and therefore a high pollution risk.
From February 2020, Environment Agency officers inspected the site multiple times over the course of a year. Each time they witnessed huge amounts of tyres that exceeded the legal limit. Paperwork obtained by the Environment Agency showed that waste tyres were continuously delivered to the site throughout the year. Andrew Eyre was the sole Director of the company with Nimesh Patel having day-to-day control of the site.
Shipping records showed that large shipments of tyres were being sent to India on a regular basis, far exceeding the allowed limit. The investigation found the 40-tonne weekly limit for the storage or treatment of waste tyres was exceeded in 52 out of the 59 weeks analysed.
At each visit, Environment Agency officers gave clear instructions on the actions required by the site to comply with environmental regulations. During an inspection on 26 February 2021, it was clear the site had not been brought into compliance, so Andrew Eyre and Nimesh Patel were arrested.
Sentencing the pair, HHJ Lucking KC said that they had been reckless and had displayed wilful blindness. She found that the risk of tyre fires at the site presented a serious risk of pollution to the environment. Had a fire started at the site, it would have placed fire-fighters and site-users at risk of serious harm from "a cocktail of hazardous chemicals."
She sentenced Andrew Eyre to 18 weeks' imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, on condition that he complete 30 days of Rehabilitation Activities. Nimesh Patel, who had been the Operations Manager at the site, was sentenced to 14 weeks' imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, on condition that he perform 80 hours of unpaid work.
Synergy Tyres (Midland) Ltd. had previously been fined and Andrew Eyre received a suspended sentence in January 2020 for operating the same waste tyre facility without an environmental permit. However, the company continued to offend in spite of this.
The case has been adjourned for consideration of the recovery of the proceeds of crime, as well as recovery of the Environment Agency's costs.
Yvonne Daly, Environment Manager for the Environment Agency, said:
"Not only do we use environmental law to prosecute those who abuse the environment, but we also use the Proceeds of Crime legislation to ensure that criminals are deprived of the benefits of their illegal activity. We continue to use intelligence-led approaches to target the most serious crimes and evaluate which interventions are most effective.
"We support legitimate businesses, and we are proactively supporting them by disrupting and stopping the criminal element backed up by the threat of tough enforcement as in this case.
"We would appeal to legitimate business to help us by report waste criminals, where they are aware of them."
Anyone who suspects illegal waste activity should report it to our 24-hour incident hotline on 0800 807060, or anonymously through CrimeStoppers on 0800 555111.
