The proprietor of a skip-hire firm in north Kent has obtained a custodial sentence after the dangerous method he dealt with waste on the banks of the River Thames.

Jack Selby is beginning an eight-month time period for operating an unlicensed waste remedy operation at Erith that caught hearth and threatened the realm from flooding. A court docket then ordered the location be closed on the request of the Atmosphere Company.

The 36-year-old, of Water Lane, Headcorn, close to Ashford, was sole director of Selbys Ltd. The corporate took in development, demolition and family waste in rented premises in Maypole Crescent on the Darent Industrial Property for 11 months throughout 2021 and 2022.

One other of Selby’s corporations, M&R Skip Rent, held an environmental allow there earlier than being wound up. An earlier suspension discover served on M&R for environmental considerations had the location on the Atmosphere Company’s radar.

Officers later discovered Selbys, the brand new agency, was touting for customized on Fb, with the advert falsely claiming the enterprise was legit.

After believing Selby was dealing with waste illegally on the economic property in late 2020, investigators made a sequence of visits to substantiate their suspicions.

They discovered the location stacked with massive piles of waste like wooden and plastic, together with a major quantity of crushed waste, often known as trommel fines.

Matt Higginson, an atmosphere supervisor for the Atmosphere Company in south London and Kent, mentioned: “Jack Selby broke the regulation for monetary achieve. Not solely did he cost prospects however handled waste illegally. He additionally skipped charges for managing a lawful waste operation.”

“There have been a number of implications from his and his firm’s operation – the chance of air air pollution from the dimensions of the enterprise, a poor understanding of fire-risk from how the waste was saved, and the injury to the flood embankment defending riverside companies.”

“Selby’s suspended jail time period should function a robust reminder to everybody within the waste trade, from corporations to people, to function inside the regulation.”

The dimensions of the waste mountains at Maypole Crescent triggered the combination to spill over onto the adjoining flood defence.

The Atmosphere Company later mentioned the burden of the waste on the embankment might have meant a ‘reasonable danger’ of it failing, which may have led to evacuation of your entire industrial property within the occasion of a flood. The defence supplied flood safety from the rivers Thames and Darent that ran alongside the economic models.

Officers additionally discovered proof Selbys was burning waste. In February final 12 months, a few of it caught hearth by itself, resulting in London Hearth Brigade spending a day placing the flames out. Just like the flood-risk, the fireplace might have had main penalties for native folks.

The identical month, investigators gained a restriction order from a court docket that closed the location, based mostly on their considerations in regards to the environmental injury Selby’s enterprise was inflicting by way of extra mud, and worries in regards to the fire-risk and injury to the flood defence.

Choose Sarah Whitehouse KC sentenced Selby at Woolwich crown court docket on 8 August to eight months in jail, suspended for 18 months, 60 hours of unpaid work and a sufferer surcharge of £156. No prices had been awarded towards Selby.

He admitted at an earlier listening to to working a waste facility at Unit 15, Maypole Crescent, on Darent Industrial Property, in Erith, between 10 March 2021 and 13 February 2022, opposite to rules 38 (1) and 12 (1) of the Environmental Allowing (England and Wales) Rules 2016.