The owner of a vehicle breakers yard operating illegally has been sent to prison for over two years by Norwich Crown Court. Tony Gray, also known as Wade Levi Smith, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to running the site without a permit or licence at The Builders Yard in Wisbech.

He had also earlier pleaded guilty to tax evasion and abstracting electricity illegally at the site and he asked the court to also consider an offence of money laundering. The court sentenced him to two 27 months on each of six offences to run concurrently.

Under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 he was also ordered to pay £698,427 under a confiscation order. Out of that sum £69,414 is to be paid in compensation to HM Revenue & Customs and £1,980 to Eon. Failure to pay that sum would lead to a four-year prison sentence in default.

On 30 June 2009 in a joint raid the Environment Agency with Norfolk Police officers and HM Revenue and Customs entered and searched the site. Gray was arrested.

Mr Sailesh Mehta, prosecuting for all three, said around 800 scrap vehicles were found in various states of dismantlement along with other stored polluting items associated with the scrap business. There was evidence of contamination from oil and batteries and many vehicles still contained hazardous fluids. £122,000 in cash was found hidden in three locations.

Gray told investigating officers he had owned the Wisbech site for 18 years and ran a business called A47 Salvage buying cars and scrapping them. He said he did not know he needed a licence to operate a waste site.

Mr Mehta told the court that Gray had run the yard successfully for years without paying any tax on the income between 2003 and 2009. He unlawfully took electricity to run the business between 2006 and 2009 and also converted about £17,000 of the proceeds through money laundering.

After the hearing Environment Agency crime team leader Phil Henderson said: “We are pleased that the court recognised the seriousness of these offences and sentenced accordingly.

“Our use of the proceeds of crime act will demonstrate to criminals that we will not only prosecute them for environmental offences but pursue them for all monies gained while illegally dealing in waste.”

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