Ammanford Magistrates Court was told that at 11am on Monday January 18 this year Carmarthenshire County Council environmental enforcement officers were in Heol Pentrefelin at Carmarthen, where they saw a Ford Transit Van turn into Heol Ferrar.
Walking behind the vehicle was a man shouting ‘rag and bone’. One of the officers spoke to 37-year-old Morgan, who was the driver of the van. It was established that Morgan and the man seen walking behind the van had been collecting scrap metals from a number of addresses in Carmarthen. Morgan conceded that he did not have a waste carrier’s licence.
He also admitted that he had collected the scrap metal with the intention to sell it at a scrap yard in Swansea. Morgan, of Corporation Road, Loughor, submitted a letter in mitigation in which he claimed he had been advised that he could continue to trade once he had submitted his application for a waste carrier’s licence.
The Bench imposed a 12 month conditional discharge and ordered him to pay £100 costs.
The council’s executive board member for the environment Councillor Haydn Jones said: “All businesses that carry waste, including scrap merchants, skip companies, builders and gardeners, must have a waste carriers licence.
“They must also make sure they have the correct paperwork for all the waste they carry and only use licensed waste sites to dispose of their rubbish.
“Hopefully this fine will help to get the message across that anyone caught illegally transporting waste will be prosecuted through the courts – where the maximum penalty is £5,000.”
