The Environment Agency has secured a Proceeds of Crime judgment for £313,382.45 against two men from Northampton who ran an illegal waste tyre site.
At Northampton Crown Court on Friday 28 March, a confiscation hearing concluded against Nimesh Patel, age 52, of Jasper Walk, Thorplands Brook, and Andrew Eyre, age 55, of Poppy Field Road, Wootton.
Patel was ordered to pay £175,013.93 and a £122 surcharge while Eyre received an order for £138,368.52 and £140 surcharge.
Both men have been given three months to pay or will face three and two years in prison respectively. Eyre was also fined £250 for breach of his first suspended sentence of imprisonment he received in January 2020.
The duo had been prosecuted for their part in running a waste tyre site, Synergy Tyres (Midland) Ltd., at Broad March Industrial Estate in Daventry.
In September 2024, Eyre, a director of the company, had received an 18-week prison sentence which was suspended for 12 months, on condition that he completed 30 days of rehabilitation activities.
Patel, who had been operations manager, was sentenced to 14 weeks’ imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, on condition that he perform 80 hours of unpaid work.
The Daventry site operated without an environmental permit and tyres were stored in an unsafe manner, creating a significant fire risk and therefore a high pollution risk.
From February 2020, Environment Agency officers inspected the site multiple times over the course of a year, and each time witnessed huge amounts of tyres that exceeded the legal limit.
Paperwork obtained showed that waste tyres were continuously delivered to the site throughout the year, with Eyre being the sole director and Patel having day-to-day control of the site.
The investigation found that the 40-tonne weekly limit for the storage or treatment of waste tyres was exceeded in 52 out of the 59 weeks analysed.
This probe followed a court case in January 2020, for the same nature of offending, when Synergy Tyres (Midland) Ltd. had been fined £11,250.
Eyre received a suspended 12-month sentence (suspended for 24 months) on condition that he stayed out of trouble and performed 150 hours of unpaid work.
At that hearing, John Mullen, then 59 of Frankston Avenue, Milton Keynes, received a 6-month community order with a requirement that he completed 15 days of Rehabilitation Activities.
At the confiscation hearing on Friday 28 March, Mullen received an order for £1 and a surcharge of £85.
Eyre and Mullen had been joint directors of a company called IN4 Ltd until February 2017, when Eyre retired, leaving Mullen as the sole director.
That company was found by investigators in March 2017 to be storing more than 1,300 tonnes of tyres – more than 15 times the amount allowed under its environmental permit.
Peter Stark, enforcement leader for the Environment Agency’s Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire Area, said:
“The case shows that we’re not just content to prosecute those who run illegal waste sites, we’ll also come after them to get back the profits they made from their illegal activities and to recoup taxpayers’ money spent on pursuing them.
“Waste crime can have a serious environmental impact which puts communities at risk and undermines legitimate business and the investment and economic growth that go with it.
“We support legitimate businesses and we are proactively supporting them by disrupting and stopping the criminal element backed up by the threat of tough enforcement as in this case.
“We continue to use intelligence-led approaches to target the most serious crimes and evaluate which interventions are most effective.
“If you see or suspect waste crime is being committed we urge you to report it immediately to CrimeStoppers on 0800 555 111.”
