A pair who illegally stored 6,000 blocks of waste have been given suspended sentences totalling 20 months between them.

David Weeks and Lee Brookes had built up the massive stockpile of rubbish, neatly packed in black plastic, in a warehouse at the Westwood Business Park in Margate.

The Environment Agency (EA) began its investigation after complaints were made to Thanet District Council (TDC) in the spring of 2017 over reports of swarms of flies close to a building.

Weeks, director of Devon-based DW Land, had signed a one-year lease with the owners at the beginning of the same year.

Soon after, lorries began arriving in the coastal town from legal sites in Hampshire and Hertfordshire, totalling 220 vehicles in three months, offloading 6,000 waste blocks.

Weeks also employed Brookes’ firm, Outdoor Maintenance Company, of Whitworth, Lancashire, to secure and manage the unit.

The EA was told Weeks was the agent for two companies wanting the site for an energy-from-waste plant, with the authority given several excuses in 2017 and 2018 as to why it could not be cleared.

On September 18 that year, the building caught ablaze with firefighters tackling the flames for 25 days.

Although no cause was ever found, roads and businesses had to close, and the disruption led to operations being cancelled at QEQM.

It was only towards the end of 2019 that waste which survived the fire was finally removed by the building’s new owners.

At Canterbury Crown Court, Weeks, 55, of School Hill, Totnes, Devon, was sentenced to 16 months in prison, suspended for two years.

He was also ordered to pay £5,000 in costs and a victim surcharge of £140.

Judge Taylor KC handed Weeks 150 hours of unpaid work and 20 hours of rehabilitation activity, aimed at preventing him from reoffending.

He must wear an electronic tag to monitor his daytime movements for the next two months.

Lee Brookes, of Tonacliffe Way, Whitworth, Lancashire, received a sentence of four months in prison, suspended for a year.

He was also given 80 hours of unpaid work and the same 20 hours of rehabilitation programme. The court also ordered the 48-year-old to pay costs of £1,000 and a £115 victim surcharge.

At the hearing on 21 January, the court was told Weeks was fined almost £10,000 seven years ago for his part in the management of a site in Plymouth where 13,000 tonnes of wood was stored illegally.

The two men pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to knowing their respective companies, DW Land and OMC Maintenance, ran the waste operation in Margate without an environmental permit between 13 January 2017 and 22 August 2019,

Matt Higginson, environment manager for the EA in Kent, said: “Weeks and Brookes profited financially from payments made to the sites where the waste originated and from its storage in Kent.

“Not getting an environmental permit for the building, and avoiding the cost and requirements of getting one, Weeks and Brookes gave themselves an unfair advantage over legitimate waste operators

“A permit for the site would have required a plan to manage the risk of fire. Risk became a reality when the building went up in flames. The disruption for local people went on for almost a month.

“This case proves you must use firms authorised to take away your waste.”