A WOOD recycling firm, which “put profit before human health and the environment”, has been fined £72,000.

Serious concerns were raised by the Environment Agency over storage breaches that made spontaneous combustion of thousands of tonnes of wood “highly likely” at UK Wood Recycling’s Wilton site, near Redcar.

Teesside Crown Court heard on Thursday, November 24, that piles of waste wood significantly exceeded lawful sizes and lacked recommended fire breaks under environmental guidelines.

Christopher Badger, prosecuting for the Environment Agency, told the court that the case was supported by Cleveland Fire Brigade after officers had tackled a blaze that ripped through the site between December 2013 and January 2014.

UK Wood Recycling previously denied any safety breaches, however the company admitted in court that between April and September 2014, a deadline to reduce increasing sizes of wood piles was not met.

Tristan Drought, Environment Agency environment management team leader, welcomed the sentence.

Mr Drought said: “The company had previously built up similar huge piles of waste wood that culminated in a large fire lasting 16 days, seriously impacting on the community, and needing a large amount of time and resource from Cleveland Fire Brigade.

“During this investigation, the company was given repeated opportunities to comply with regulatory guidance and the advice of the local fire brigade but chose to disregard this, once again building up large volumes of wood and putting profit before human health and the environment.

“We are working together with the company to find a way they can operate as a profitable business while taking fire prevention and environmental concerns into account.

“The company has invested considerable funds on the site and we continue to work with them to find a satisfactory way forward.”

Judge Howard Crowson said that since 2014, the firm had shown a commitment to improving fire prevention on site and that before 2013, there were few criticisms of the company’s operations.

The firm was charged with keeping controlled waste in a manner likely to cause pollution or harm to human health between April and September 2014.

Judge Crowson fined the company £72,000 and ordered they pay £71,335 in court costs.