man causes wife to receive fine for illegally burning waste at skip hire company

A woman was fined £2250 on Monday after pleading guilty to two charges of burning waste within a skip hire site licenced under her name.

Wendy Menzies was held responsible for the conviction despite the fact that the company, located in her hometown Perth, Scotland, is managed by her husband Callum.

Callum Menzies was banned from running Fair Mile Skips due to previous environmental convictions. The company licence was put under his wife’s name so that he could continue to manage it.

The site, which is held on the Friarton Business Park premises, was inspected on the 27^th May 2011 by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) after a complaint was made to the local police. The burning was said to have taken place on 18^th and 27^th May 2011 and was found in breach of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, Section 33(6).

Inspectors found more than a tonne of burning waste on the premises, which created a huge cloud of grey smoke and was dangerously close to a further 1000 tonnes of rubbish situated around the site.

Mr Menzies was thought to have been burning the waste in order to avoid paying taxes to take it to landfill, which would cost £70 per tonne to dispose of legally.