01May

South Lanarkshire record fine upheld

Posted on 1st May, 2014

Appeal judges have upheld a fine handed to a South Lanarkshire waste management firm, which was described as the largest of its kind for a waste offence in Scotland.

Doonin Plant Ltd and its director Gary Doonin were found guilty of charges relating to the handling of controlled waste without a waste management licence and in a manner likely to cause pollution to the environment in September 2012 (see letsrecycle.com story).

Livingston Sherriff Court handed the firm a fine totalling £200,000 after hearing that the company had illegally stored several hundreds of tonnes of waste at a site near Cambuslang between January 17 2010 and February 11 2010.

The fine was described at the time by SEPA as the largest penalty handed out for an environmental offence in Scotland.

Defence lawyers said that the waste was being kept on the site on a ‘temporary’ basis, and it was not being kept there long enough for leachate or gas to escape into the surrounding area.

(sourced from letsrecycle.com)