A rogue trader falsified paperwork to win high-value asbestos removal contracts across England – including in Abingdon.
Lee Charles, 40, has now been ordered to pay back £82,100 under Proceeds of Crime Act rules, having been handed a 12 month suspended prison sentence by a judge in Lincoln last year.
The Environment Agency, which brought the prosecution against Charles, said he traded under the name Lincs Demolition Ltd for two years, falsely claiming that he was registered to remove asbestos.
He won jobs across the country, from London and Abingdon to Manchester and Walsall.
The waste he removed illegally was then stored in hired storage containers in Welbourn, Lincolnshire, just 200 metres from a school and close to a Girl Guide hut.
Charles told the owners of the storage containers that he wanted to keep tools there.
They only discovered the asbestos after he failed to pay his rent and they forced the locks.
The Environment Agency’s Paul Salter said: “Lee Charles’ crimes were not just illegal, but dangerous. He has been ordered to pay back money, and this sends out a clear message to others who flout the law that waste crime doesn’t pay.
“Not only do we use environmental law to prosecute offenders, but use proceeds of crime orders to ensure that criminals are deprived of the benefits of their illegal activity.”
Linked to causing a type of lung cancer called mesothelioma, the use of asbestos was banned in the UK in 1999.
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