The state of Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection’s Division of Law Enforcement announced that Clarence Hobbs and Carl Hobbs were ordered by the 6th Judicial Circuit Court to pay DEP more than $19,000 in restitution for two felony violations of Florida’s environmental law.
On August 7, 2001, DEP special agents executed a search warrant at Hobbs Metal Recycling after being contacted by the Pinellas County, Fla., Sheriff's Office. The search warrant was issued for the suspected illegal disposal of waste tires and solid waste material, which included waste oil, anti freeze, and acetone. In addition to the waste violations at Hobbs Metal Recycling, the two men were also disposing of solid waste on adjacent county-owned property.
Both men were charged with two counts of felony litter, which is punishable by up to five years in prison. They were also required to remove the waste and clean up the site.
In addition to paying DEP $19,124.80 in restitution, both men were ordered to pay $120 in court costs and an additional $50 a month to the Department of Corrections.
News of the agreement comes a little more than a year after Florida Department of Environmental Protection investigators ended a 10-month investigation by arresting the owners of Hobbs Metal-Recycling.
Special agents with the DEP said they visited Hobbs' 5-acre property several times and found numerous violations of state and county environmental codes. A 100-foot-long, 20-foot-wide, 15-foot-high pile of tires was just one of the violations investigators cited. The two men also stored a jumble of cars, appliances, septic tanks, copying machines and car batteries at the site.