By James Campbell
The Hull Daily Mail
HULL, England — A fire that caused damage costing more than £250,000 ($395,000) was started in a mountain of illegal waste.
Firefighters battled for days against the blaze, which involved a 4m-high, 15,000 tonne pile of household waste off Clough Road in Hull.
A court heard the waste should have been stored inside.
The directors of the now defunct Riverside Recycling Waste Ltd, Stuart Leveridge, 50, Michelle Leveridge, 39, and Jonathan Disley, 45, have each been handed sevenmonth prison sentences, suspended for two years.
Mandy Coult, of Reservoir Road, was forced out of her home for four days after the fire took hold.
She said: “I woke up choking and thought our house was on fire. I rushed downstairs and the whole house was full of smoke.
“These people deserve to be punished.
“It could have been a lot worse. “We put in a claim and now we cannot get any contents insurance thanks to all this. “This was a ridiculous situation and somebody had to pay for it.”
Fellow Reservoir Road resident Tina Lowther also welcomed the sentences. She said: “We had to leave our home for two or three days. “It was a frightening experience. There was this thick smog everywhere. Those who ran the company deserve what they got.”
At its peak, 60 firefighters battled the blaze at the Anchor Trading Park, off Clough Road, on May 13, 2009. Fire crews had to remain on site for four days to damp down the rubbish pile. Businesses also had to close for days, leading to concerns over loss of trade.
The blaze was started deliberately but those responsible have never been found. The fire is believed to have cost £261,000 of damage. During sentencing at Hull Crown Court, Judge Jeremy Richardson issued a stern warning to other companies. He said:
“The courts will send company directors to prison, where appropriate, if they flout environmental protection laws and place commercial interests over their responsibility to the public.”
Riverside Recycling Waste Ltd dealt with rubbish skips, sorting out the waste into different types. The mountain of rubbish was made up mainly of household waste, much of which was combustible. Mr and Mrs Leveridge, of Bentley, near Beverley, took over the business in 2007 and brought in Mr Disley, of Kings Langley, Hertfordshire, to manage the finances.
Concern over rubbish being stored outside came to light in April 2008. Environment Agency officers warned them they were in breach of their permit. But the rubbish continued to build up, ending up with a pile 15m long, 5m wide and 4m deep. The company went bust shortly before the fire happened.
All three directors previously pleaded guilty to breaching environmental regulations. They escaped an immediate jail term because the case had been hanging over them for so long.
Judge Richardson took into account the early guilty pleas and the fact the Leveridges had lost their home and most of their savings. He also accepted that there wasn’t much point in issuing a fine or an order for costs because they couldn’t afford to pay.
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