A conman who went around the country lying to people about getting rid of harmful asbestos, then dumping it in storage containers, has been ordered to pay back £82,100. The Environment Agency said Lee Charles of Caldicot Gardens, Grantham, in Lincolnshire, had pleaded guilty last year to lying to customers and giving false paperwork to hide his deception. As a result, it said, he was given a suspended prison sentence.
It said he was back at Lincoln Crown Court this week in a case brought by the agency under the Proceeds of Crime Act, following a financial investigation. The agency said Charles marketed himself as Lincs Demolition Ltd for two years, claiming he was registered to remove asbestos to gain lucrative jobs from Dorking to Doncaster. He had no legal permit to carry out the work.
The places where the 40-year-old acted out his dishonesty covered much of central and eastern England, it said.
Although asbestos is carcinogenic when disturbed and has been banned since 1999, the agency said after duping his customers, Charles stashed the waste asbestos in hired storage containers at Welbourn, in Lincolnshire, 200 yards from a school and close to a Girl Guide centre.
It said he told the site owners he wanted to keep tools there – and it was only when he failed to pay the rent that they forced the locks and were confronted with the dangerous contents.
Paul Salter, an environmental waste crime officer for the Environment Agency, said: “Lee Charles’ crimes were not just illegal, but dangerous. He has been ordered to pay back, and this sends out a clear message to others who flout the law that waste crime does not pay.
“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 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.
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“We continue to use intelligence-led approaches to target the most serious crimes and evaluate which interventions are most effective.”
The agency said once exposed, Charles abandoned the storage containers at Welbourn, moving to an unpermitted waste site 16 miles away near Sleaford, where he continued to store asbestos unsafely, posing a risk to public health.
It said Charles previously pleaded guilty to two counts of operating a waste operation without a permit and two counts of keeping or disposing of controlled waste in a manner likely to cause pollution or harm.