Midlothian business man fined for failing to disclose
environmental conviction
15 June 2011
A Loanhead skip hire operator was fined £450 at Edinburgh
Sheriff Court yesterday (14 June) for deliberately providing
misleading information on an application to register as a waste
carrier.
James M Cunningham pled guilty to knowingly providing
information which was false or misleading, while registering to be
a carrier of controlled waste. The matter was reported to the
Procurator Fiscal by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency
(SEPA).
On 9 September 2010, Mr Cunningham completed an application form
to register as a carrier of controlled waste and submitted this to
SEPA's Edinburgh office, along with the requisite fee. Part three
of the application form asks whether the applicant has been
convicted of any offence listed in the Controlled Waste
(Registration of Carriers and Seizure of Vehicles) Regulations,
1991. Notes included in the application provide details of
who is a relevant person, and lists the offences contained within
the regulations.
Mr Cunningham signed and dated a declaration stating that the
information on the form had been checked, by him, and was true. The
application form was duly processed by SEPA's registry staff and Mr
Cunningham was granted a Waste Carriers Certificate.
However, it later became clear that Mr Cunningham had not
disclosed a 2006 conviction for depositing waste on land.
Simon Cole, SEPA's Unit Manager in Edinburgh, said:
"There is a legal obligation on operators who transport waste to
be registered with SEPA to do so. As someone who had a conviction
for depositing waste Mr Cunningham deliberately provided false
information, had he declared his previous relevant conviction on
his application he may not have been registered as a waste carrier.
"
Ends
Notes to editor
The exact charge James M Cunningham pled guilty to :was:
On 09 September 2010 at 28 Salamanca Crescent, Penicuik,
Midlothian or elsewhere, you JAMES MOFFAT CUNNINGHAM, in providing
information to a regulation authority, namely the Scottish
Environment Protection Agency, to comply with a requirement in
pursuance of regulations under this Act, namely the Controlled
Waste (Registration of Carriers and Seizure of Vehicles)
Regulations 1991, did knowingly or recklessly provide information
which was false or misleading in a material particular in that you
did state on a form applying for registration under said
regulations that you had no such convictions, the truth being as
you well knew that you were convicted of an offence under Section
33 of the Environment Protection Act 1990 at Edinburgh Sheriff
Court on 7 April 2006 and were fined £200 and that the information
you provided on said application form was false; CONTRARY to
Section 7(3)(b) of the Control of Pollution (Amendment) Act 1989,
as amended.