An East London waste firm director has received a suspended prison sentence – after 11 attempts to illegally ship electrical and electronic waste to Ghana.

Moses Appiah, sole director of Appiahdeep Company Ltd in Rainham, was sentenced at Barkingside Magistrates Court pleading guilty to 11 offences of transporting hazardous waste.

The company was also fined £18,500 and ordered to pay £1,000 towards court costs.

The court heard that 11 shipping containers loaded with hazardous WEEE were intercepted by the Environment Agency prior to export to Ghana between August 2012 and June 2013.

In each case, the containers were filled with items from and loaded at Appiahdeep Company Ltd’s premises at Dovers Corner Industrial Estate, Rainham. The address for the company is a warehouse, which the Environment Agency claimed was filled with used electrical and electronic equipment.

In addition to receiving a suspended custodial sentence, Mr Appiah was disqualified from acting as a company director for five years and ordered to pay £1,000 in costs.

Mr Appiah must also observe a six month curfew, which is imposed between the hours of 8pm and 6am.

After the prosecution, Kim Egbokhan, senior environmental crime officer at the Environment Agency, said: “We put a lot of resource into educating operators in the Rainham area about the dangers of illegal transport of waste and so it is immensely frustrating when we have to prosecute people and companies for this crime.

“We will, however, continue to do this for however long it takes, in order to bring these companies into compliance with the law.”