Two persistent Northampton offenders prosecuted for running illegal waste tyre site in Daventry

Andrew Eyre, 55, of Poppy Field Road, Wootton, Northampton, and Nimesh Patel, 52, of Jasper Walk, Northampton, received suspended sentences at Northampton Crown Court on September 3, 2024.

The two men were running Synergy Tyres (Midland) Ltd., a waste tyre site located in Daventry's Broad March Industrial Estate, without an environmental permit.

Tyres were stored in an unsafe manner, creating a significant fire and high pollution risk.

Yvonne Daly, EA’s environment manager, said: “We support legitimate businesses, and we are proactively supporting them by disrupting and stopping the criminal element backed up by the threat of tough enforcement as in this case.”

EA officers inspected the site multiple times over the course of a year, starting in February 2020.

Each time they witnessed huge amounts of tyres that exceeded the legal limit.

The investigation found that the 40-tonne weekly limit for the storage or treatment of waste tyres was exceeded 52 out of the 59 weeks analysed.

Records showed that waste tyres were continuously delivered to the site throughout the year.

Large shipments of tyres were regularly sent to India, far exceeding the allowed limit.

Nimesh was in charge of the site daily, while Andrew was the company's sole director.

At each visit, EA officers gave clear instructions on the actions required by the site to comply with environmental regulations.

When it became apparent that the site had not been brought into compliance during an inspection on February 26, 2021, Andrew and Nimesh were arrested.

Yvonne Daly said: “Not only do we use environmental law to prosecute those who abuse the environment, but we also use the Proceeds of Crime legislation to ensure that criminals are deprived of the benefits of their illegal activity.

“We continue to use intelligence-led approaches to target the most serious crimes and evaluate which interventions are most effective.”

Sentencing the pair, Her Honour Judge Lucking KC said that they had been reckless and had displayed wilful blindness. She found that the risk of tyre fires at the site presented a serious risk of pollution to the environment.

Had a fire started at the site, it would have placed firefighters and site users at risk of serious harm from “a cocktail of hazardous chemicals.”

Andrew Eyre received an 18-week jail sentence with a 12-month suspension, provided he completed 30 days of rehabilitation activities.

Nimesh Patel, the site's operations manager, was sentenced to a 14-week jail term with a 12-month suspension if he completed 80 hours of unpaid work.

In January 2020, Synergy Tyres (Midland) Ltd. was fined, and Andrew Eyre received a suspended sentence for operating the same waste tyre facility without an environmental permit. The company continued to offend in spite of this.

The case has been adjourned for consideration of the recovery of the proceeds of crime as well as the recovery of the EA’s costs.

“We would appeal to legitimate businesses to help us by reporting waste criminals, where they are aware of them,” said Yvonne Daly.

People who suspect illegal waste activity should report it to the 24-hour incident hotline on 0800 807060 or anonymously through CrimeStoppers on 0800 555111.