Watch tanker driver discharge waste liquid onto road - which saw him fined more than £1,000

A tanker driver who discharged waste liquid onto the road has been fined more than £1,000.
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Fifty-year-old Stanley Hall, aged 50, pleaded guilty to discharging contaminated water into a highway drain in July 2017 when he appeared before Gateshead Magistrates, in a prosecution brought by the Environment Agency.

Hall, of High Carr Road in Durham, was ordered to pay £1,352 in fines after admitting committing the offence on to the B6317 near Crawcrook.

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Video evidence recorded by a vigilant passing motorist was played in court, clearly showing black liquid being discharged from Hall’s vehicle, and subsequently flowing through gully holes at the roadside next to Bradley Burn.

The dumping caught on cameraThe dumping caught on camera
The dumping caught on camera

Defending himself, Hall accepted that what he had done was wrong, although he insisted he had been placed under pressure to do so by his now former Hartlepool-based employers as the tanker had to be taken in for repairs that evening.

Rachael Caldwell, Area Environment Manager for the Environment Agency, said: “Discharging any contaminated liquid waste is a serious offence as it could cause an unlimited amount of damage to the environment and if it ends up in the local watercourse it could have an impact on residents and wildlife.”

Records confirmed Hall had driven from Hartlepool to Ryton where approximately 8,000 litres of waste was drawn out from a storage tank and taken to a sewage treatment works. He later made the return journey to extract a further 8,000 litres, but rather than taking it to the sewage works he emptied the contents on to the road.

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The following day, an Environment Agency officer attended the scene and took photographs but concluded no obvious lasting impact was made upon the watercourse.

Rachael Caldwell added: “We applaud the vigilance, care and attention of the passing motorist, whose quick thinking to safely record footage of the offence has been a key piece of evidence in the prosecution of Mr Hall. We would urge the public if they see any suspicious activity to report the information to our incident line.”

If you see or are aware of waste crime, you can report it by calling the Environment Agency’s incident hotline on 0800 80 70 60 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.