Essex skip-hire company pleads guilty to waste crime charges
Roy Brett and his company pleaded guilty after ignoring repeated warnings
The owner of a company hiring out rubbish skips in Essex has pleaded guilty to a range of offences over how the business was run.
66-year-old Roy Brett allegedly ignored repeated warnings about the amount of skips and waste built up at the site through his company, RJ Brett Contracts Ltd, which also admitted breaking the law.
It was found Brett didn't have an environmental permit, despite allegedly denying it over a two year period.
Brett and RJ Brett Contracts Ltd confessed to breaches of environmental law between 2024 and 2026.
The Environment Agency’s case is that Brett ignored written orders and face-to-face warnings to clear the compound at Lanham Green Lane, in the village of Cressing. Brett claimed he “didn’t do e-mails,” so “missed” the written instructions to remove the waste.
Lesley Robertson, enforcement team leader for the Environment Agency in Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk, said:
“Roy Brett is a director of three other skip-hire companies in Essex. It doesn’t seem plausible that someone with his years of experience in the waste industry misunderstood that he didn’t need an environmental permit or what low-risk activity was allowed for exemption from needing one.
“Brett and his company undercut rivals by avoiding permitting and subsistence fees. They also evaded permit conditions designed to protect the environment.
“I would urge anyone hiring a skip, or paying someone to remove waste, to check our online register to make sure the company or individual has valid permits from the Environment Agency.”
Essex Fire and Rescue Service also became involved, instructing Brett to clear the yard and ensure that no materials capable of causing a fire were brought onto the site.
Concerns about the operation were first reported to the Environment Agency in summer 2024, prompting an inspection. Officers discovered more than a dozen waste-filled skips emitting a strong odour and gave Brett three months to remove the material.
When officials revisited the site in October, they found little had changed. A formal cease-and-desist notice was issued, warning that failure to clear the waste could result in prosecution.
By January 2025, when the deadline expired, conditions had significantly worsened. Nearly 50 skips crowded the yard—some stacked—alongside a large accumulation of wood and soil.
Brett, 66, of Winstree Road in Stanway, Colchester, had previously been permitted to carry out limited low-risk waste activities under exemption rules that did not require a licence. However, these exemptions were revoked as the scale of the violations became apparent.
RJ Brett Contracts Ltd was charged with four offences:
- operating the waste facility at Lanham Green Road in Cressing, without an environmental permit between 3 July 2024 and 31 January 2025;
- and between 1 February 2025 and 30 January 2026, both contrary to regulations 12 and 38 (1)(a) of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales Regulations 2016;
- failing to comply with a notice dated 28 November 2024, requiring the company to remove controlled waste from the site by 30 January 2025, contrary to sections 59ZB(2) and 59ZB(6) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990;
- and keeping controlled waste at the site in a manner likely to cause environmental pollution or harm to human health, contrary to section 33(1)(c) contrary to Section 33(1)(c) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
Roy Brett was also charged with four offences:
- contrary to regulations 12, 38(1)(a) and 41(1) of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales Regulations 2016, knowing of or contributing to operation of the waste facility at Lanham Green Road, in Cressing, by RJ Brett Contracts Ltd, without an environmental permit between 3 July 2024 31 January 2025;
- and between 1 February 2025 and 30 January 2026;
- contrary to section 59(5) and s157(1) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. knowing of or contributing to RJ Brett Contracts Ltd failing to comply with a notice dated 28 November 2024 served on the company, requiring it to remove controlled waste from the site by 30 January 2025;
- contrary to sections 33(1)(c) and 157 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, knowing of or contributing to RJ Brett Contracts Ltd keeping controlled waste in a manner likely to cause pollution to the environment or harm to human health.
Roy Brett and RJ Brett Contracts Ltd will be sentenced at Colchester magistrates’ court on 15 May, when elements of the case will also be heard.