Environmental Agency v Mustafa and Another, EWCA Crim 597, 2020
Citation: Environmental Agency v Mustafa and Another, EWCA Crim 597, 2020
Rule of thumb: What happens if environmental permits/recycling laws are breached? The first time you may be able to argue it was accidental, but if there have been past warnings about this then it eventually becomes a criminal offence.
Judgment:
The facts of this case were that a company and its 2 directors had a site where people could dump wood, and the company would store wood there and also treat it there for resale. The waste law stated that if people were operating this business model then they could store up to 500 tonnes of wood at their site provided that they registered as an ‘exempt user’ with authorities. The company registered as an exempt user and initially complied with the rules – the pressures, rigours and forces of business then took over – the business essentially had more wood dumped at it by people, but they struggled to treat and sell the wood as quickly as they would have liked, and they went over the 500 tonne limit. They were warned about this, but went over it many more times without properly registering as an over 500 tonnes user, or indeed just turning people away who wanted to dump wood at their business. Eventually, the exempt license of the business was stripped, and the company as well as the 2 directors were prosecuted for repeated non-compliance. The arguments accepted by the Court were heavily statute and regulation based, and the Court rejected the arguments of the business and the directors who tried to argue using other sources of law, ‘On a straightforward interpretation of the legislative provisions, in our view, a waste operation will only be an “exempt facility” if it fully meets the requirements of paragraph 3(1) of Schedule 2 (Of the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2010/2016). If it does not meet those requirements in full, it cannot be an “exempt facility”, and it must be a “regulated facility”. There is no other status it can have. And if, as a “regulated facility” without an environmental permit, there is a breach of regulation 12, and an offence under regulation 38 has been committed’.
Warning: This is not professional legal advice. This is not professional legal education advice. Please obtain professional guidance before embarking on any legal course of action. This is just an interpretation of a Judgment by persons of legal insight & varying levels of legal specialism, experience & expertise. Please read the Judgment yourself and form your own interpretation of it with professional assistance.