AN illegal waste dump has cost Hunter-based builder Thomas Hughes nearly $2.7 million in fines, legal bills and removal costs.
Hughes, of Thomas Paul Constructions Pty Ltd (TPC), was initially fined at the end of July 2019, over the dumping of illegal waste at Sandy Hollow, about 23 km outside of Muswellbrook.
At that time, TPC was building about 300 houses per year, according to documents filed in the NSW Land and Environment Court.
Hughes started sending truckloads of building and demolition waste to the 75 hectare bushland site in October, 2013, after a failed attempt to set up a waste disposal facility at a different site due to a change in zoning.
Hughes pleaded guilty to the offence in 2019, admitting to dumping an estimated 4,500 cubic metres.
First fine
He was fined $45,000, plus the prosecution's legal costs of $60,000, as well as $42,500 to cover the costs of the NSW Environmental Protection Agency's investigations.
Those costs grew, however, after Hughes failed to make good on the resulting remediation order.
Initially, Hughes complied by hiring a consultant to advise on the removal of the waste. That process started in March 2020, with excavated waste moved to 111 stockpiles on a separate part of the same block, for waste management and classification.
However, a small amount of asbestos was detected in the waste dug up from two of the three pits, leading to all of the waste from the two pits in that location to be classified as asbestos.
Negotiations, meetings, changed deadlines and conditions were discussed and back and forth between the parties - Hughes and the EPA, with a 2022 deadline agreed on.
Hughes failed to remove all of the waste in the agreed timeframe.
In his defence, Hughes cited the outbreak of COVID-19 and its impact on his capacity to deliver on the waste removal and remediation order, as well as the discovery of asbestos.
Removal costs
He also pointed to the volume of material which ultimately required trucking off the site, increasing from the original estimate of 4,950 tonnes to 14,313 tonnes.
According to Hughes, the removal of the waste cost him about $2.357 million, a figure made up of costs borne by, and resources diverted from his company, TPC.
There were also periods of flooding, which restricted his ability to comply.
Despite that, the EPA argued Hughes had access to the resources of TPC, of which he was sole director and shareholder.
He could have used those resources to a greater extent to comply with the remediation order, the EPA said, submitting TPC financial statement's revealing the company's net profit upwards of $56.3 million in the four years ending June 30, 2023.
Hughes ultimately did remove the waste, most of it trucked out between January and November, 2023.
District Court Land and Environment Court Judge Rachel Pepper said in her written judgement of August 27 that it was "well within Hughes's control" to divert further resources from his company to compliance, or seek an extension through the court systems.
Judge Pepper put the environmental crime committed by Hughes in the mid range of objective seriousness, saying it was committed wilfully, and for financial gain, and because it caused actual and potential environmental harm.
Second fine
Hughes was convicted of breaching court orders for not clearing up dumped waste, to which he pleaded guilty on March 15, 2023.
He was fined $150,000, with a 25 per cent discount due to his guilty plea, taking the penalty down to $112,500, plus the EPA's costs of $81,600.
