Skip hire owner kept waste without a permit

A skip hire firm in Wolverhampton has been ordered to pay almost £3,000 for illegally keeping waste on land just outside the city centre.

Cliff Nicholls, owner of Cliff Nicholls Skip Hire, left mountains of rubbish including bricks, concrete, soil, carpets and scrap metal off Union Mill Street in Horseley Fields without a licence.

Mr Michael Robinson, prosecuting on behalf of the Environment Agency, told Wolverhampton Magistrates Court yesterday: "These offences were deliberate and there was a regular breach over a period of a year.

"A significant amount of waste was kept on the land. He did not have a permit so should not have had this material on this site.

"The victim in this case is the environment."

Mr Robinson said that Nicholls, aged 52, of Phillips Avenue, Wednesfield, had avoided paying licence fees and other fees of about £4,000.

Mr Fergal Bloomer, defending , said that Nicholls, had not paid the licence to keep waste legally on the land as he was having financial problems.

Mr Bloomer continued: "His house was repossessed in December and he has moved in with his mother.

"He accepts he kept the waste on the site without the relevant licence.

"He has good character to put before the court today."

Mr Bloomer told the court Nicholls launched his skip hire business in 2009 and it employed around 12 workers.

Nicholls was given a six-month prison sentence suspended for two years. He was also ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work and pay costs of £2,900.

He admitted two charges of operating a regulated facility without an environmental permit on June 30, 2009 and April 18 last year.

He also pleaded guilty to depositing a builder's skip on the highway without authority on May 5, 2010

Nicholls has now been ordered by the Environment Agency to leave the illegal site by April 30 or face further legal action.

Chairman of the bench Keith Berry warned him he would be brought back to court if the waste was not removed.