A man from Co. Derry, Northern Ireland has been found guilty on three counts of waste offending.
62-year-old Thomas McGlinchey, director of Brickkiln Waste Ltd., was found guilty in Londonderry Crown Court yesterday (Monday, March 20) with sentencing due to take place on April 28, at Coleraine Crown Court.
McGlinchey’s two charges relate to Article 4(1)(a) and 1 charge of Article 4(1)(b) of the waste and Contaminated Land (Northern Ireland) Order 1997:
- Article 4(1)(a) – depositing waste at an unauthorised site;
- Article 4(1)(b) – treating/keeping of waste at an unauthorised site.
Waste
In October 2013, Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) officers observed a lorry depositing controlled waste at lands off the Carmoney Road in Derry.
An survey of the area – under warrant – that followed revealed approximately 7600t of non-compliant waste.
Brickkiln Waste Ltd. was an authorised waste company at the time of the offence, however, the receiving site on the Carmoney Road was not authorised or engineered to accept the waste streams identified during the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs’ (DAERA) surveys.
The department said this type of waste should have been treated in an authorised Materials Recycling Facility or disposed of at an appropriately authorised landfill.
The act of infilling the waste at this unauthorised area ultimately undercuts the legitimate waste industry, evades landfill tax and leads to environmental degradation, it said.
68-year-old John Ferguson of Princess Terrace, Derry, was an employee of Brickkiln Waste Ltd. at the time but was found not guilty on two waste offences regarding the deposit of this waste.