A Strood skip company has been fined more than £17,000 for failing to remove such a huge pile of waste it was crushing their own fences and spilling out onto other people's land.

Owner of Walsh Skip Hire Limited, of Knight Road, Peter Walsh, pleaded guilty to multiple offences after an Environment Agency investigation found masses of waste surrounding the permitted waste site.

At Maidstone Magistrates’ Court Walsh Skip Hire Limited was fined £10,000 with costs of £5,000 and Peter Walsh individually fined £1,500, with costs of £500 and a victim surcharge of £120.

The court heard how site inspections in 2013 identified multiple permit breaches, with excessive amounts of waste on the property and the site infrastructure in a state of disrepair.

Environment Agency officers worked with the company and agreed a course of action; but these actions were not taken.

Two enforcement notices were issued in May 2014 to remove the huge stockpile of waste - which was crushing and covering the site’s boundary fences and spreading onto land belonging to several different landowners - by September 2014.

But this did not happen.

Alan Cansdale, Environment Agency Environment Manager, said: “The site operator had a history of poor performance and my team have worked with him in the past to improve the situation, however on this occasion he was unable to do so. Those that repeatedly fail to comply with regulations pose a heightened risk to the environment and undermine legitimate business. In such circumstances we will have no hesitation prosecuting to ensure that waste crime doesn’t pay.”