THE DIRECTOR of a waste management company has been jailed for 15 months after illegally dumping 75,000 tonnes of waste – leaving the landowner with a £10m bill.

Barry Kilroe’s stored an estimated 75,000 tonnes of waste at a site close to the Manchester Ship Canal at Moore without an Environment Agency permit through his company Asset and Land Group Ltd.

One of the biggest investigations in the Environment Agency’s history has led to Kilroe being jailed for 15 months and banned from operating as a company director for six years.

The site at Birchwood Lane had been set up in order to send waste abroad, but was operating without a license.

Now the landowner Peel will have to pay a bill of £10m in order to clear the waste left by shareholder and director Kilroe, of Alderley Edge – the Environment Agency is now offering advice and support to the landowner.

Environment Agency officers feared that a fire at the site would have stopped freight from travelling along the canal, causing a big knock-on effect on the economy.

Kilroe was sentenced at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court on Friday after admitting operating the site without an Environment Agency permit and nine other charges relating to other businesses he operated in Salford and Stockport.

A major fire at J25 Recycling Ltd in Stockport in 2013 raged for 41 days, closing the M60, causing three weeks of traffic disruption and polluting a nearby river.

Meanwhile, a fire also broke out at Recovered Fuels Shipping Ltd in 2014, lasting for 19 days – this led to the closure of a railway line and main routes into Manchester city centre.

Transport manager and company director Jane Williams was fined £500 for operating the Moore site without Environment Agency permit plus a second charge relating to the Salford site.

Richard Davies, financial director, walked free from court after failing to provide an environmental management system at the Stockport business.

Lee Rawlinson, the Environment Agency’s area director for Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire, said: “This is one of the biggest cases the Environment Agency has prosecuted.

“We have been committed to doing so because of the severity of the offence and cost and impact on the environment, communities and business.

“It has resulted in significant financial impacts to legitimate businesses.”