Oran ordered to hand over almost £350,000

An environmental firm which has been operating in the Grangemouth area has been told to pay up £345,558 for continued breaches of legislation.
Oran was forced to hand over a record sum of money for breaching waste regulationsOran was forced to hand over a record sum of money for breaching waste regulations
Oran was forced to hand over a record sum of money for breaching waste regulations

Oran Environmental Solutions Ltd’s Alloa-based recycling company has been made the subject of the massive confiscation order – the largest ever made in Scotland for environmental offending.

At Alloa Sheriff Court on Monday, Oran was also fined a total of £12,000 for keeping controlled waste without a licence in a manner likely to encourage birds and vermin and for failing to remove mixed waste when required to do so by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA).

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The offences took place at the company’s facility at Kilbagie Mill in Alloa, where it collected and treated waste and recycled cardboard, paper, aluminium, wood and metals.

During the course of SEPA inspections in 2013, it was found that the company were utilising a non-licensed area of the site to store additional waste that was brought onto the site.

This waste was stored in large unsegregated stockpiles, skips and bins all around the unlicensed area of the site. Waste types varied and the largest stockpiles on site were greater than 10 feet high and at least the same size in width.

This waste was kept without regard for the environmental impact that the storage of the waste in this manner could have.

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The excessive quantity of waste on site was such that it was visible from the A977 and local residents had complained about the impact, with some feeling that they could not open their windows due to the number of flies.

The same firm, which also had a recycling plant in Abbotsinch Industrial Estate, in Grangemouth, was believed to be at the centre of a fly infestation which struck Grangemouth town centre in the recent past.

The financial history of the company was carefully assessed by financial investigators and accountants in the Serious and Organised Crime Division of the Crown Office which led to the Confiscation Order being made. The Confiscation Order represents the full benefit that the company made from failing to comply with the legislation and fees they avoided with their failings.

Lindsey Miller, Procurator Fiscal for Organised Crime and Counter-Terrorism, said: “This company was operating on a site that they had refused to make fit for purpose at the expense of the local environment and at a significant financial benefit to them. By failing to remove the waste they had sought to pocket over £300,000.

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“This investigation and prosecution was a result of excellent partnership working between SEPA and the specialist prosecutors from both the Wildlife and Environmental Crime Unit and the Serious and Organised Crime Division.

“Both the Order and the sentence imposed send a clear message to those who do not comply with our environmental laws that those who seek to degrade our environment for their own greed will be rigorously pursued and stripped of any profit they sought to make by avoiding their legal obligations.”

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