Lincolnshire man sentenced after storing asbestos near school
Lee Charles was handed a 12 month suspended prison sentence.
Last updated 30th Mar 2022
A man from Lincolnshire has been sentenced after he toured England deceiving customers over the disposal of harmful asbestos.
Lee Charles has been given a suspended prison sentence after telling dozens of people he was authorised to take it away, but it was all a big lie. He then hid the asbestos near a school.
A court heard Charles marketed himself as Lincs Demolition Ltd for two years, claiming he was registered to remove asbestos to gain lucrative jobs from Dorking to Doncaster. He had no legal permit to carry out the work.
The list of places where the 40-year-old acted out his dishonesty read like an A-Z.
Abingdon, Barton-upon-Humber, Boston, Burntwood, Cambridge, Caterham, Doncaster, Dorking, Erdington, Birmingham; Grantham, Gravesend, Great Yarmouth, Huntingdon, Ipswich, Kettering, Kings Lynn, Leicester, Lincoln, Loughborough, Luton, Mansfield, Market Rasen, Melton Mowbray…
… Newark, Norwich, Nottingham, Oakham, Peterborough, Scunthorpe, Sidcup, London; Sleaford, Spalding, St Ives, Cambridgeshire; Stockport, Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester; Stourbridge, Walsall, Warsop, Wellingborough and Worksop.
Asbestos is a hazardous substance when disturbed and carcinogenic. The UK banned its use in 1999.
Having duped his customers, Charles stashed the waste asbestos in hired storage containers at Welbourn, in Lincolnshire, 200m from a school and close to a Girl Guide centre.
Charles told the owners of the storage space he wanted to keep tools there. When he failed to pay the rent on the containers, the owners forced the locks and were confronted with the dangerous contents.
Paul Salter, an environmental waste crime officer for the Environment Agency, said:
“Lee Charles’ crimes were not just illegal, but dangerous.
“In spite of repeated warnings and advice from the Environment Agency, Lincs Demolition, under Charles’ direction, put both the environment and public health at risk.
“Asbestos causes serious health problems when inhaled, and its careless storage presents a significant hazard, with a risk to the life.
“With Charles failing to pay for appropriate staff training and safe storage among other liabilities, Lincs Demolition avoided business costs of at least £50,000.
“All waste businesses must have the correct permits in place to protect themselves, the environment and the public. We support operators trying to do the right thing, only issuing enforcement notices and penalising businesses as a last resort.”
Once exposed, Charles abandoned the storage containers at Welbourn, moving his activities to an unpermitted waste site 16 miles away near Sleaford, where he continued to store asbestos unsafely, posing a risk to public health.
Imposing a 12-month prison sentence, recorder Paul Mann told Charles, who has a string of previous convictions for dishonesty and breaches of court orders, he “knew the regulatory regime well enough to know what he was doing was seriously wrong.”
However, he said that he was “just” able to suspend the sentence for a period of two years so Charles could pay the Environment Agency’s costs to be decided later and compensation to the owners of the Welbourn containers for the not insignificant costs they had incurred in cleaning up the site.
Lincoln crown court was told Charles, of Caldicot Gardens, Grantham, pleaded guilty to lying to customers and giving false paperwork to disguise his deception.
He’ll be back in there on 13 June, when the court will decide on a proceeds of crime order against him.
In 2015, illegal waste activity was estimated to cost over £600 million in England alone, with the figure for the UK likely to be much higher.
The Environment Agency’s permitting system enables businesses to carry out their operations, while robust regulation provides the level playing field legitimate businesses need to prevent being undercut by irresponsible or illegal operators.
Charles pleaded guilty to two counts of operating a waste operation without a permit between 2017 and 2019, contrary to Regulations 12, 38(1)(a) and 41(1)(a) of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016.
He also pleaded guilty to two counts of keeping or disposing of controlled waste in a manner likely to cause pollution or harm, contrary to Sections 33(1)(c), 33(6) and 157(1) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.