£5,000 fine for scrap metal dealer's illegal microwaves

A SCRAP metal dealer has been fined 5,000 for illegally storing and dismantling thousands of old microwave ovens on an industrial unit in North Yorkshire.

The Environment Agency brought the prosecution against James Pearson after it was discovered that he did not have the relevant permit to run the business at Hunmanby Industrial Estate, near Filey.

At Scarborough Magistrates Court, Craig Burman, prosecuting for the Environment Agency, said officers found about 3,300 scrap microwaves stored at the industrial estate. Many had been opened up, exposing electrical wires. Other scrap metal was stored nearby as Pearson stripped the microwaves for valuable components.

He appeared before magistrates on Monday and admitted running his waste business between October 2008 and January this year without the necessary environmental permit.

He failed to obtain the permit in spite of warnings and environment officers continued to observe evidence of the waste business on site.

Mr Burman said officers who analysed Pearson’s waste records found he had been paid 10,227 for scrap received during 2009.

The court heard any processing or dismantling of electric or electronic waste had to take place indoors and to ensure goods were not exposed to the elements.

Pearson, 50, of Airy Hill in Filey, was fined 5,000 and was ordered to pay full prosecution costs of 2,547.59 and a victim surcharge of 15.

Speaking after the case, environmental crime officer Steve Williamson said he had never seen so many scrap microwave ovens in one location before.

He said: “People who choose not to take the advice that we give them can expect to feel the full force of the law.”

About two million tonnes of waste electrical and electronic equipment are thrown away every year in Britain, and it is one of the fastest-growing types of waste in the country and the EU.

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