Man fined after company dumped asbestos-contaminated waste on Stocksfield farmland

A man has been fined after his company dumped waste contaminated with asbestos on farmland.

Grant Brown, 35, of Brampton Gardens, Throckley, has also been told to pay compensation of more than £7,000 to the landowner, who was left to clear up the rubbish.

He was banned from being a company director for three years.

Brown was fined £1,125 at Newcastle Magistrates' Court on Thursday 14 September after previously pleading guilty to allowing his company to dump the waste on farmland in Stocksfield, Northumberland, failing to comply with duty of care legislation, and failing to produce waste transfer notes.

Gary Wallace, area environment manager for the Environment Agency in the North East, said: “Waste criminals target property and land to dump waste they’ve illegally collected and disappear, leaving a huge clean-up bill for landowners, and dumped waste causes contamination and is a major fire risk.

“In this case we were able to trace the waste back to Brown's company and after an Environment Agency investigation he’s been put before the courts for his offending."

Brown, trading as GB Waste Management and operating out of Bells Close Industrial Estate in Lemington, claimed to collect and dispose of waste.

The court heard on 1 September 2021, an Environment Agency officer attended the Bells Close site to investigate a report of an illegal waste site.

It was confirmed Brown’s company did not have an environmental permit, which is required to minimise the impact on the environment. The site had several skips full of waste including bricks, tiles, plasterboard, wood and soil.

During a follow up visit with Newcastle City Council in November, Brown told officers the company had been dissolved and all skips and trucks had been sold. He said the site would be cleared.

However, at the end of the same month, a post on the company’s Facebook page showed before and after images of a pile of waste cleared from a residential garden, evidence that the company was still active.

Overnight on 25 November 2021, 20 tonnes of waste was dumped on farmland at Stocksfield. Personal identifiable items were found among the construction and domestic waste which the Environment Agency traced back to Brown’s company.

During clearance of the waste – which cost the landowner more than £32,000 – asbestos was found on site, which was traced back to the clearance of a Newcastle City Centre property.

Additionally, during the investigation, the Environment Agency asked for all waste transfer notes for the company produced during 2021.

Every person who produces, carries, keeps or disposes of waste is subject to duty of care legislation to ensure the waste is managed appropriately, which includes ensuring the transfer of waste is recorded. Only those created by other companies were produced, an Environment Agency spokesperson said.

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