CONSISTENT

FINED OCTOBER 2010


Waste company Veolia has been fined £225,000 after a litter collector died in a collision between one of its vehicles and a lorry.


Agency worker Damian Griffiths, 20, from Swanley, Kent died in the accident on the A228 in East Peckham in 2007. Veolia was found guilty of breaching the Health and Safety Act by a jury at Maidstone Crown Court in August.


FINED FEBRUARY 2010


Veolia Environmental Services (UK) Ltd has been fined £130,000 following an incident in Buckinghamshire which saw a worker killed when a 1,100 litre recycling bin fell on his head.


Veolia employee David Ives, 56, was collecting refuse outside a pub in Easington, near Aylesbury, on 5 May 2004 when the recycling bin fell from the bin hoist on the back of the refuse vehicle and landed on his head, killing him.


Aylesbury Crown Court found Veolia guilty last week (Thursday 11 February) under Sections 3 (1) and 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. In addition to the £130,000 fine, the firm was also ordered to pay £220,000 in costs.


FINED DECEMBER 2009


Veolia has been fined £150,000 and ordered to pay £90,000 in prosecution costs “after a massive inferno which closed motorways and schools and brought Preston’s roads to a standstill.”


Passing sentence at Preston Crown Court, Judge Stuart Baker said it was “merciful” that no-one was hurt or killed. Burning missiles were thrown up to 200 feet in the air as over 132,000 litres of chemicals were set alight in the blaze on July 2 2007. As fire raged through the site almost 70 firefighters and 10 senior officers battled for more than eight hours to bring the 30 ft flames under control.


Veolia ES UK Ltd – which owns 15% of the entire UK waste materials market – pleaded guilty to two breaches of Health and Safety Regulations relating to the segregation of hazardous waste and the appropriate training of staff to handle flammable and combustible substances.


Fire broke out at the waste handling site on the Red Scar Industrial Estate at around 6am when lithium batteries shipped in from the Ministry of Defence in Northern Ireland spontaneously combusted, setting fire to oxidisers and organic peroxides which were being stored nearby.


FINED JANUARY 2009


The UK's largest waste management company, Veolia Environmental Services (UK) Ltd, has today been ordered to pay to £166,000 in fines and costs after an incident at its hazardous waste treatment facility in Bootle, Merseyside.


This was a totally avoidable incident had the proper procedures been in place and it was only through good fortune that the consequences were not more serious


Daniel Longdon, HSE


The company was fined £101,000 and ordered to pay £65,000 costs after an incident at the facility on April 27, 2006 caused the release of toxic fumes which led to four members of staff having to receive medical treatment and several members of the public reporting side effects.


Veolia ES pleaded guilty to eight charges which were brought against it in a joint prosecution by the Environment Agency (EA) and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).


FINED AUGUST 2009


Veolia fined £26,737 for failure to control odours


Veolia one of the bidders for the Leeds Waste contract was fined £26,737 in July 2009 by the Environment Agency for failing to control odours at a facility in High Wycombe despite the installation of an odour suppression system.


Stinks to high heaven says the Environment Agency press release..

The UK.s leading waste management provider was ordered to pay 26,737 yesterday (Monday, 20 July) for a breach of odour conditions.


Veolia was fined for a consistent breach in conditions at the High Heavens composting facility in High Wycombe between June and December 2006. Thames Water Services Limited operated the business at the time of the breaches, but Veolia took over management of the site and responsibility for the breaches in November 2007.


FINED 2008


In 2008, Veolia was fined £13,500 for a major sewage spill which had closed beaches along the Forth estuary. Around 120 million litres of screened sewage went into the Forth after a mechanical failure at Veolia’s Edinburgh pumping station. The same year Veolia was fined £1,000 for illegally landfilling liquid wastes, with a fine the previous April for a similar incident and a string of prosecutions related to illegal waste disposal.


FINED 2007


Veolia has been fined just £2,000 after admitting that newly acquired business Cleanaway sent liquid and flammable hazardous wastes to landfill, nearly two years after the practice was banned. Solvents With Safety was fined for similar offences