Waste company prosecuted for ignoring audit at Notts site
Source: gov.uk (2025-07-03)

A Midlands-based waste company and a partner in the business have been prosecuted for failing to comply with a demand for information about materials accepted.

- Droitwich-based business ordered to pay total of £52,405.05 for failing to provide details of materials processed
- Partner in firm to pay total of £7,996.05 for his part in running Welbeck Colliery operation
- Case heard at Worcester Magistrates Court on 14 March 2025
At Worcester Magistrates Court on Friday 14 March, Tetron Welbeck Limited Liability Partnership pleaded guilty and were fined £44,800 and ordered to pay costs of £5,605.05.

The Partnership was also ordered to pay the victim surcharge of £2,000. In total the Partnership has to pay £52,405.05.

Edward Seekings, a designated member of the Partnership, also pleaded guilty and was fined £1,708.

Seekings, 41, of Bridge Lane Court, Bawtry, Doncaster, was also ordered to pay costs of £5,605.05 and the victim surcharge of £683, coming to a total of £7,996.05.

The court was told that the Partnership, whose office is at Hadzor Court, Hadzor, Droitwich, Worcestershire, had an environmental permit since 2013 to operate a site at Welbeck Colliery near Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. It was stated that the business changed hands around 2020.

The Partnership failed to comply with a formal information notice served on it after it failed to provide information requested by the Environment Agency.

The information was required to allow the Environment Agency to conduct an audit of the site to ensure waste within the correct category was being accepted.

The deadline in the notice for the receipt of the information was the 15 June 2023. No information was received.

Seekings sent a work plan on 15 June 2023 but it did not include the required information. He engaged with the Environment Agency but did not provide the information required.

Further attempts by the Environment Agency to obtain the relevant information failed.

A spokesperson for the Environment Agency said:

We welcome this sentence which should act as a deterrent to others considering flouting the law.

As a regulator, the Environment Agency will not hesitate to pursue any person failing to provide information requested.

The Environment Agency served a formal legal notice in this case requiring information to be provided. It is a criminal offence to fail to comply with a notice requiring information.

If anyone is suspicious of waste activities they should call our 24/7 hotline on xx-xxxx-xxxx or Crimestoppers anonymously and in confidence on xx-xxxx-xxxx.

The Charge

Tetron Welbeck Limited Liability Partnership (Company Number OC366746) failed without reasonable excuse by 15 June 2023 to furnish to the Environment Agency information required by a Notice in writing dated 15th May 2023.

This was served on it pursuant to section 71(2) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, contrary to section 71(3) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

The offence was committed with the consent or connivance of, or was attributable to any neglect on the part of Edward Seekings, contrary to Section 157(1) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

Background

At Worcester Crown Court on 27 June 2025, Tetron Welbeck Limited Liability Partnership (TW) appealed against sentence.

The fine for the offence contrary to section 71(3) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 was reduced on the basis in the Magistrates the company had not been sentenced as it should have been, namely as a small organisation. This was based on the accounts produced by the Limited Liability Partnership.

The Magistrates had imposed a fine of £44,800 with a Victim Surcharge of £2000. Prosecution costs of £5609.05.

The Crown Court reduced the fine to £13,340.

The Environment Agency retained costs in the Magistrates Court but we were not awarded any costs in the Crown Court because the Appeal was successful.

The victim surcharge remains the same.