A SCRAP metal dealer may lose its licence after being fined £400,000 for illegally dumping waste, reports the Local Democracy Reporter.

European Metal Recycling Limited operates as a scrap dealer at Station Road, East Tilbury and 13-19 Berth, Tilbury Docks. The company applied to renew its licence, but under current regulations had to reveal a conviction.

The company was accused of an offence of depositing controlled waste in Stowey Quarry, Somerset in May 2016.

Following a hearing at Bristol Crown Court on July 2, 2021, the company was fined £400,000 and a confiscation order of £32,958 was made.

The company was subsequently notified its licence renewal application was likely to be refused.

Thurrock Council’s licensing sub-committee is set to decide the application on Wednesday.

The committee has the option of granting or refusing the licence or granting it with conditions.

These are that the dealer must not receive scrap metal except between 9am and 5pm on any day and that all scrap metal received must be kept in the form in which it is received for a specified period, not exceeding 72 hours, beginning with the time it is received.

The Scrap Metal Dealers Act warns that a local authority must not issue or renew a scrap metal licence unless it is satisfied that the applicant is a suitable person to carry on business as a scrap metal dealer.

A report to the committee said:

“In determining whether the applicant is a suitable person, the authority may have regard to any information which it considers to be relevant, including whether the applicant or any site manager has been convicted of any relevant offence and whether the applicant or any site manager has been the subject of any relevant enforcement action.

“European Metal Recycling Limited may now not be considered to be a suitable licence holder as they have been convicted of a relevant offence as listed under the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013.

“The council has a duty under Section 17 of the Crime & Disorder Act 1998 to do all that it reasonably can to prevent crime and disorder in its area and other behaviour adversely affecting the local environment.”

Source: Your Thurrock