A 68-YEAR-OLD man whose two illegal rubbish tips in Sharpness and Cam could cost more than a million pounds to clean up has been jailed for 18 months.

Alfred Booy, of the Old Bakery, Newport, had a permit for his first waste transfer site at Sharpness but then continued the operation despite being evicted and issued with a notice from the Environment Agency ordering him to stop.

After being evicted by his landlords the Canal and Rivers Trust he moved his operation to land in Cam, where he had no permit and operated illegally from the start, Gloucester Crown Court was told.

At Sharpness, the Canal and River Trust is now facing a bill of up to £980,000 to clear the rat-infested site of a variety of waste including scrap metal, tyres, cabling, plastic. oil and possibly asbestos.

At the Cam site, which is close to a reservoir, a mixture of commercial, household and industrial waste was accumulated, including wood, soil, vegetation, scrap metal and some plastic, said prosecutor Kate Rogers. Experts estimated 200 cubic metres of waste were there but no estimate of the clean-up costs has yet been obtained.

Booy, who was a director of A1 Green Recycling at the time of the offences, pleaded guilty to being an officer of a company which failed to comply with an enforcement notice requiring waste at Sharpness docks to be removed by June 25, 2013.

He also admitted failing to produce a site condition report for Sharpness by July 18 and also admitted contravening regulated waste requirements at the Leathern Bottle site at Cam where he operated between June and Sept 2013.

On Wednesday, January 14, this year, Judge Euan Ambrose told him that he had shown a "flagrant disregard" for the environmental laws.

"There were frequent attempts by the Environment Agency to get you to deal with the mess you had made at Sharpness and you simply disregarded what was being required of you," said the judge.

"Major costs are to be incurred in cleaning up the site as well as restoration costs.

"At Leathern Bottle it was again deliberate because you knew from your previous experience that you had to have a permit. You didn't have one. You set up that waste transfer facility knowing that you did not have a permit to do so.

"There will also be significant costs incurred in clearing up that site although they have not yet been quantified."

Booy had a complete lack of experience and ability to run waste transfer sites at all, said the judge.

Ms Rogers had told the court that Booy's company obtained a permit in 2010 to run a waste transfer facility at Sharpness but problems began when he was given an eviction notice.

"The Environment Agency required him to return the land to its original state and re-instate the fencing. "

However a site visit on March 8, 2013, revealed it was still piled up with waste and an enforcement notice was served.

Ms Rogers said he left the site without any improvement and it is still in that state today. The landlords have had estimates of up to £1.6 million to clear the site and are likely to use a firm which has quoted £980,000 but will reduce that to £422,000 if some recycling takes place on first.

"It later became apparent that upon leaving Sharpness he had set up a waste transfer station at Leathern Bottle. There was an office there with certificates on the walls which applied to Sharpness. Anyone visiting the site would have thought it was an authorised station," said Ms Rogers.

She said inspectors warned Booy the site was illegal and a permit would be needed.

On July 23, 2013, he was served with a notice requiring all waste to be removed by September 18 but on that date he was still operating the business.

Ms Rogers said the Leathern Bottle operation was "a complete disregard for the legislation."

Ian Dixey, defending, said Booy was of previous good character and had operated his own transport business until he lost his HGV licence and went to work for a waste transfer company.

It was suggested he set up such a business on his own account and he did so at Sharpness.

But it was a site without electricity or running water and it was not a practical place to run the business and employ four to five people, said Mr Dixey.

Booy had borrowed heavily on his home to get the operation going but "it was doomed before it even started" he said.

After things went wrong at Sharpness he was advised by a professional in the industry that he would be able to set up at Leathern Bottle and he acted on that advice, added the barrister.

The adviser, and a firm of solicitors, said he would get the necessary permissions but in fact there was no hope of that really happening, said Mr Dixey.

"It was pie in the sky," he said. "These people succeeded in relieving him of £5,000 in fees. He was wrongly encouraged to think he could run this operation .But he was not even capable of running it - bluntly, he was not competent."

Booy was now insolvent with a £207,000 mortgage and £30,000 credit card bills, he added.

Mr Dixey described Booy's venture at Sharpness as due to "sheer naivete and bad advice."

As well as his debts Booy now had health problems and was "not a young 68".

Judge Ambrose jailed Booy for a total of 18 months and adjourned the question of costs and any confiscation under the Proceeds of Crime Act to a date to be fixed.