FOLLOWING a five-day Chester fire involving thousands of old tyres a businessman has been fined £30,000 for breaching the conditions of a Waste Management Licence by illegally storing waste.

He was also ordered to pay the £2,279 costs of Environment Agency Wales who brought the prosecution at Chester Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

David McIntyre of Tennyson Road, Whitby, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire pleaded guilty to five charges of breaching conditions of a Waste Management Licence.

The breaches were in contravention of Section 33 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

The court heard that in April 2003 a large fire at the site had burned for five days, due to the great number of tyres illegally stored.

The Court indicated that the offences were of such a serious nature that consideration had been given to a custodial sentence.

They had also taken into account the guilty pleas for which credit had been allowed, and for a degree of co-operation.

The Court heard how McIintyre held an Agency Waste Management Licence for a site at 31, Bumpers Lane, Chester from which he operated a business known as Deva Car Dismantlers.

The licence contained a number of conditions to protect the environment, the amenity of the area and site security.

Compliance with these conditions was regularly checked by Environment Agency officers.

Between January 10 and September 15, 2003 Agency officers observed many thousands of inappropriately stored tyres on the site which was entitled to contain no more than 1,000.

McIntyre had inherited many of these from a previous occupier.

They also witnessed cars stored outside of the licensed area, and the perimeter fence in a state of disrepair.

In the same year officers also noted that car batteries and oily engines were not being properly stored and spillages were not being removed as required by the licence.

Despite the breaches being drawn to Mcintyre's attention there had been no significant improvement in the situation, and formal notice was served on him requiring compliance within 14 days.

The notice had not been complied with.

In April 2003 a large fire had occurred at the site, which burned for five days, due to the great number of tyres illegally stored.

McIntyre had subsequently left the site which he occupied by agreement with Chester City Council, who own the freehold. It had been left to the council to arrange for removal of the remaining tyres and for the area to be cleared.

Following the case Ann Weedy, Agency Team Leader, Environment Management said: 'This prosecution demonstrates the serious consequences for the environment of non-compliance with licence conditions, especially on sites storing large quantities of tyres.

'We will use all the powers available to us to prevent pollution and the operators of those sites which persistently ignore licence conditions will face the consequences.'