On Tuesday 24th September at South Tyneside Magistrates Court a former Northumberland-based recycling business and its director were ordered to pay a combined amount of £54,365 in fines and compensation after being found guilty of failing to comply with legal obligations.
This follows an investigation by the Environment Agency (EA) resulting in Northern Compliance Ltd and its director Vincent Francis Eckerman pleading guilty for their failure to finance the cost of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) collection, treatment, recovery or disposal of household WEEE items, as per their obligations in 2017.
Northern Compliance was an EA approved WEEE compliance scheme established to assist businesses meet their producer obligations under the WEEE Regulations.
There were two charges recorded, one against Northern Compliance Ltd and the second against Vincent Eckerman as company director.
For the period of 31 December 2016 and 1 April 2018, Northern Compliance Ltd also failed to pay the WEEE Compliance Fee Fund a substantial amount estimated to be in the region of £1,108,862, payment of which would have resulted in them conforming to their obligations under the WEEE regulations for 2017.
Director of Northern Compliance Ltd, Mr. Vincent Eckerman, aged 59 of Castlefield, Prudhoe told the court the company missed its WEEE collection targets due to a 'perfect storm' of problems with suppliers. Mr. Eckerman then realised he would be unable to pay the compliance fee as he hadn't been prepared for the sum to be as high as it was.
The penalties included the company being ordered to pay £50,900 in compensation to the WEEE Compliance Fee Fund, where the compliance fee should have initially been paid by 31 March 2018.
The second charge saw Mr. Eckerman being ordered to pay a £2,295 fine with a £170 victim surcharge and £1,000 court costs.
Prosecuting for the Environment Agency, Rebecca Chalkley told the court that Mr. Eckerman had flagrantly disregarded the law, and his arguments stating he was not to blame amounted to "smoke and mirrors".
When sentencing Northern Compliance Ltd and Mr. Eckerman, District Judge Begley commented "I found his evidence verbose and lacking in clarity…he simply has not done what I would expect of a man with his experience…and he had been reckless and significantly undermined the regulatory regime."
District Judge Begley
