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Essex company fined after operator ignored warnings to clear overflowing site.

The owner of a business near Braintree hiring out rubbish skips has been sentenced to a 6-month suspended prison term.

Chelmsford magistrates’ court heard about Roy Brett’s “repeated failure” to accept Environment Agency warnings regarding overflowing skips and uncovered waste. Brett’s company, RJ Brett Contracts Ltd, was fined £3,000 for similar offences.

Chair of the bench Andrew McGregor said the site “posed multiple risks to the environment and human safety, including by fire.”

Between 2024 and this year, Brett refused to comply with repeated orders to clear the waste that overflowed from an ever-growing number of skips. Brett’s inaction placed the environment at risk from the small yard at Cressing. The site was exposed to the elements, with no sealed drainage.

Roy Brett’s yard is nestled in green fields near Braintree, but he ignored repeated warnings about the amount of skips and waste built up at the site

The yard was full of wood, metal, textiles and builders’ rubbish. Hardly any space was left, causing a fire-risk, and a lot of waste was just stored on the ground.  

Brett had claimed he “didn’t do e-mails,” so “missed” written instructions to remove the waste, piled up across the site. But the Environment Agency also warned him in person.

He didn’t have an environmental permit to manage the yard, but finally, after lots of excuses and denial when challenged by the Environment Agency, Brett admitted in court to breaching environmental law. RJ Brett Contracts Ltd was also charged.

Brett faces a custodial sentence if he commits other offences or doesn’t clear the site by November.

Lesley Robertson, enforcement team leader for the Environment Agency in Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk, said:

“It wasn’t credible for an operator like Roy Brett, director of three other waste companies and years of experience, to say he misunderstood the need for an environmental permit or justify having an exemption from needing one. 

“The operation undercut rivals by avoiding permitting and subsistence fees. They also evaded permit conditions designed to protect the environment.”

Essex Fire and Rescue Service had concerns about the site, too. They told Brett to tidy up the yard, and make sure no waste that could start a fire was brought in.       

The Environment Agency began an investigation into the site in July 2024. Officers found more than a dozen skips brimming with waste. Brett was given 3 months to remove it all.    

Officers were back on site when the deadline passed as the situation hadn’t improved. Brett was then warned the site must be cleaned up, or face prosecution. By early 2025, almost 50 skips filled the yard, some on top of others. Officers also saw large piles of wood and soil. There were also problems with smells.

Brett sought to legitimise his waste operation by registering exemptions from environmental permits that are meant for low-risk activity. But the Environment Agency deregistered the exemptions when the site took on too much waste.   

As well as the order to remove all waste, the 66-year-old, of Winstree Road, Stanway, in Colchester, was sentenced to 6 months in prison, suspended for 18 months. He was ordered to undergo 30 days of rehabilitation activities and told to pay a £154 victim surcharge. RJ Brett Contracts Ltd was fined £3,000, and has to pay a victim surcharge of £1,200.  

RJ Brett Contracts Ltd was charged with 4 offences:

• operating the waste facility at Lanham Green Road in Cressing, without an environmental permit between 3 July 2024 and 31 January 2025;
• and between 1 February 2025 and 30 January 2026, both contrary to regulations 12 and 38 (1)(a) of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016;
• failing to comply with a notice dated 28 November 2024, requiring the company to remove controlled waste from the site by 30 January 2025, contrary to sections 59ZB(2) and 59ZB(6) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990;
• and keeping controlled waste at the site in a manner likely to cause environmental pollution or harm to human health, contrary to section 33(1)(c) contrary to Section 33(1)(c) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

Roy Brett was also charged with 4 offences:

• contrary to regulations 12, 38(1)(a) and 41(1) of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016, knowing of or contributing to operation of the waste facility at Lanham Green Road, in Cressing, by RJ Brett Contracts Ltd, without an environmental permit between 3 July 2024 31 January 2025;
• and between 1 February 2025 and 30 January 2026;
• contrary to section 59(5) and s157(1) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. knowing of or contributing to RJ Brett Contracts Ltd failing to comply with a notice dated 28 November 2024 served on the company, requiring it to remove controlled waste from the site by 30 January 2025;
• contrary to sections 33(1)(c) and 157 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, knowing of or contributing to RJ Brett Contracts Ltd keeping controlled waste in a manner likely to cause pollution to the environment or harm to human health.

The register anyone can search to check if a business or person has an environmental permit for any activity with the potential to cause harm to the environment can be found at: https://environment.data.gov.uk/public-register/view/index.

Contact us:

Journalists only: 0800 141 2743 or communications_se@environment-agency.gov.uk.