27
Jun 2024
Harrogate man who 'deliberately breached the law' jailed after waste site blaze
A Harrogate man, who owned an illegal waste tyre facility in Bradford, has been jailed after a fire broke out at the site in 2020.
Stuart Bedford, 61, formerly of Harrogate, owned and operated the Spring Mill Street site, which stored disused tyres, without a required permit.
The Environment Agency, prosecuting, said more than 600,000 tyres had been stored at the site. Despite the body issuing Bedford an enforcement notice to clear the tyres in October 2020, the site caught fire just a month later.
The blaze, which required 100 firefighters to tackle, affected 14,300 pupils at nearby different schools, and caused "serious and unacceptable" disruption to travel and local people.
The Telegraph and Argus reported the fire cost more than £1.1 million to put out.
Bedford was also running a second waste tyre facility at Wright Business Park in Doncaster, which also did not have the required environmental permit to operate.
Vicky Bedford, Bedford’s wife, also appeared in court for her involvement.
The couple fled to Spain following the fire, but were eventually arrested and extradited.
Stuart Bedford was charged with two counts of operating an unauthorised regulated facility (both Doncaster and Bradford) and two counts of keeping controlled waste in a manner likely to cause pollution of environment and harm to human health.
Vicky Bedford faced the same charges.
Both defendants pleaded guilty to the charges against them and were sentenced at Bradford Crown Court on Monday.
Stuart Bedford was sentenced to serve two prison sentences, of 12 months and 8 months, to be served concurrently. He will spend a total of 12 months behind bars.
Vicky Bedford was given a 12-month community order, which requires her to complete 15 days of rehabilitation activity days.
'You deliberately breached the law'
Judge HHJ Gibson said upon sentencing:
Stuart Bedford, there is no doubt in my mind that you deliberately breached the law. You were experienced in the storage and disposal of tyres. You know from an early stage that the number of tyres you stored on the site was vastly more than you would have been legitimately able to store under an exemption issued for that site...
...As far as the fire itself is concerned, you were reckless in the standard meaning of that word. You went ahead and stored the tyres anyway regardless of the risk. You were being paid to take these tyres and valued the tyres at the Bradford site at £1 million.
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