Skip hire boss ordered to pay back £250k

Patricia Hills and her son were caught after an Environment Agency investigation

A convicted skip hire boss has been ordered to pay £250,000 after she profited from burning illegal waste.

Patricia Hills, of Redfern Road, Bootle, had been jailed for 12 months for operating a rogue recycling site.

The judge at a confiscation hearing at Liverpool Crown Court ordered her to pay back the amount within three months or face three years in jail.

The 72-year-old was convicted of illegal waste activity in March 2022. Her son Mark Hills, 48, was also jailed for eight months for his part in the operation.

The Environment Agency said it stripped Hills' MWM Recycling Ltd of its environmental permit after a series of breaches and the firm was ordered to clear the land of waste.

However waste continued to be stored and illegally burned at the site, the agency added.

The agency said Hills' son had run the day-to-day site operations.

Jeni Brittlebank, area environment manager for the Environment Agency, said: "Waste crime does not pay and not only will we hit people with court action, but we'll hit them in the pocket.

"Illegal waste operations carried out in the interests of profit are at the expense of the environment, put communities at risk and undermine legitimate businesses that work within the law."

The confiscation hearing, under the Proceeds of Crime Act, took place on 1 September.