British Scrap Yard Fined

The Penrith, UK Magistrates’ Court fined Karl Bowman £1,000 for continuing to run an illegal scrap yard, despite previous convictions for offenses at the same site.

Karl Bowman was also ordered to pay a further £1,000 in costs to the Environment Agency, which brought the prosecution.

Last November the Penrith Magistrates’ Court sentenced Bowman to a 160-hour community punishment order after hearing how he had run his scrap yard at Bowscar Quarry, Penrith for five years, without ever having held a waste management license – despite the Environment Agency’s repeated attempts to help him make an application.

The licenses are a legal requirement for anyone involved in storing, treating or disposing of waste.

In December 2004, following Bowman’s conviction for three waste offenses at the Bowscar Quarry site, the Agency visited Bowman to check whether he had complied with an earlier notice requiring him to clear waste from the site within a four-month period. It appeared that he had not done so, despite Agency officers having faxed him step by step details of exactly what he needed to do to comply.

In January 2005 Bowman admitted to the Environment Agency that he had still not cleared the site and had in fact added to the waste being stored there.

Jennie Frieze, prosecuting, told the court that Bowman is in the process of applying to the Agency for a waste management license but has yet to provide the needed documentation.