A COMPANY boss has been ordered to pay more than £16,000 after dumping 400 tonnes of clay and soil on land at Marston.

The Environment Agency is urging businesses to check land is suitable before depositing waste after Charles Platt, the managing director of Northwich-based Hankinsons Cheshire Limited, admitted two charges after his firm deposited the equivalent of 51 truck loads of waste on land off Ollershaw Lane. He has been given a month to pay £16,200 in fines and costs after his company failed to check that the site where its waste was being disposed was a legal site.

Mr Platt said that he thought the site was licensed but accepted he hadn't checked to confirm the licence existed. He said his company didn't routinely ask to see licenses nor did he make any checks to ensure sites were authorised for waste deposits. The owner of the site is due to appear in court in the New Year over the matter. EA prosecutor Jennie Frieze told the court that Hankinsons knew it was only able to deposit waste at licensed premises yet had no system in place for ensuring sites used for the disposal of waste were licensed. Magistrates said it was 'disturbing' that a company as large as Hankinsons had no such checking system in place and urged Mr Platt to ensure this unlawful activity does not reoccur.

EA officer Ian Hickman said: 'Whether you're the owner of a multi-million pound business, or self employed, if your firm produces waste you need to make sure it's taken to a site authorised to accept it. It's not sufficient to just take the word of the person operating the site, you need to check they have the necessary paperwork. It only takes a couple of minutes to check by phone or on-line and could prevent you from breaking the law.'