WASTE bosses have been fined thousands of pounds after leaving 2,000 tonnes of 'stomach churning' rotting rubbish to build up at a site in Dudley.

The rubbish mound at Shaw Road attracted complaints from nearby businesses and residents for its ‘stomach churning’ stench and the dust it left on nearby vehicles, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.

The site was abandoned in 2016, with Environment Agency officers working with the new landowners to finally remove all the waste in March 2018.

Employees of nearby businesses described the smell as ‘stomach churning’ and felt physically ill as a result. The smell was described as rotting vegetables and resembled that of sewage, while the dust had an impact on neighbouring businesses, covering customers’ cars and business vehicles.

Debris from the waste piles blocked guttering and affected air conditioning at nearby factory units.

The companies and directors involved were sentenced on August 13, after they were convicted by Wolverhampton Crown Court in June.

Rowanoak Waste Services Limited and director Kevin Allan, of Perton, were found guilty on all counts relating to the illegal waste activities.

The company was fined £25,000 and Kevin Allan received 12 months’ imprisonment suspended for 12 months and was ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid work. He was also ordered to pay £40,000 towards the prosecution costs and disqualified from acting as a company director for three years.

Mak Waste Limited was fined £18,000 and director Brian McIntosh, of Bartley Green, was found by Wolverhampton Crown Court to have been allowed the breaches to occur and witnessed the site deteriorating, while making empty promises to Environment Officers.

He received a 10 month sentence suspended for 12 months and was ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work. He was also ordered to pay £1,200 towards the prosecution costs and disqualified from being a director for five years.

Randle Hawkins, of Upper Gornal, was found guilty of deliberately failing to comply with a revocation notice. He was ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid work and pay £1,000 towards prosecution costs. He was earlier cleared of four other charges relating to the breach of permit conditions and enforcement notice.

Edward Venables (formerly Boulton), also a director of Mak Waste Ltd, was found not guilty of all three charges against him.

Speaking after the case, the Environment Agency officer in charge of the investigation said: “Waste crime is a serious offence with tough penalties. It can damage the environment, blight local communities and undermine those who operate legally. We aim to disrupt, prevent and investigate illegal waste activity and take enforcement action where we can. In this case, those found guilty, by being in breach of their permit, continued to operate their site illegally and continually ignored the Environment Agency’s efforts to reduce the waste.

“The Environment Agency use all enforcement powers available where we believe environmental offences have been committed.

“Allan, McIntosh and Hawkins have shown a complete disregard for the local community, subjecting local businesses to months of misery by illegally and inappropriately storing large quantities of waste on the site.”

The Environment Agency urge people to report waste crime on the Incident Hotline 0800 80 70 60 or anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.