A man who ran several illegal waste transfer stations in Greater Dandenong and left landowners with clean-up bills totalling more than $100,000 has been fined $5000 without conviction.
After four years of delays, Adrian Thomas Bradshaw, 42, pleaded guilty over the three unauthorized operations at Keysborough and Dandenong South industrial zones in 2019 and 2020.
Sorted piles of rubbish and skip bins were found in Popes Road, Keysborough; Luisa Avenue, Dandenong South and Berends Drive, Dandenong South.
Prosecutor Matthew Sherwell, on behalf of Greater Dandenong Council, said council officers had initially warned Bradshaw he’d need a permit and later a cease-and-desist letter at Popes Road in 2019.
Despite this, he kept an array of large skip bins and industrial hopper type bins, piles of demolition and garden waste, bricks, cement sheets, stripped mattresses, cardboard and timber outside.
Inside a building, Bradshaw stored construction waste, green waste, timber, second-hand materials and putrescible waste.
He told the council that he was “just cleaning out the land and buildings from the previous tenant”.
When Bradshaw departed, the land-owner was left with a clean-up bill, Sherwell told the court.
In 2019, Bradshaw then set up an unauthorized facility at Luisa Avenue. Again, he claimed he was there to clean up the land.
As well as piles of rubbish outside, more than 3000 square metres of waste filled a building.
“Council noted from the odour and flies that putrescible waste was present as well as garden, hard and general household waste,” Sherwell said.
After being ordered to desist operations, Worksafe, Victoria Police, CFA, the council and Environmental Protection Authority Victoria inspected and found increased levels of waste inside and outside.
The land owner’s managing agent locked Bradshaw out. It cost the land-owner $101,306 to clean up the site.
Waste transfer stations needed to be regulated stringently, Sherwell told the court. If unregulated, there were greater risks of environmental impacts and catching fire.
“Many go up in flames because the waste facilities are not properly managed. That was the concern at Luisa Avenue.”
In 2020, Bradshaw was prosecuted for a similar storage facility with skip bins, mattresses and dirt piles and other materials in Berends Drive without a permit.
Bradshaw unsuccessfully pleaded to the court to suppress his name from media reports due to his ailing mental and physical health.
The married father of three told the court he was unable to work due to an accident, was no longer involved in recycling and was burdened with debts.
Sherwell claimed that council officers took photos and footage of Bradshaw “walking freely” and taking part in a cars-and-coffee business owned by close family members.
Magistrate Julian Ayres said the matter wasn’t relevant. He accepted TAC’s recent assessment that confirmed Bradshaw’s physical incapacity.
He advised Sherwell to refer that material to the police or the TAC, if it had concerns.
Bradshaw was unlikely to return to recycling, so his chances of reoffending this way were “almost nil”, Ayres noted.
The magistrate also accepted Bradshaw was unable to afford significant fines.
Greater Dandenong applied for Bradshaw to pay them more than $16,000 in costs. Some of that was fueled by Covid delays, which were neither parties’ faults, Ayres said.
Mr Ayres awarded $8000 in costs against Bradshaw, on top of his $5000 fine – which totalled a “significant amount of money”.
Community protection was a relevant factor in sentencing, with the offending at Popes Road the most serious because it spanned five months, Ayres said. The other offences were about a week each.
Bradshaw had a “close to perfect” record, other than being fined $4000 for a similar unauthorized waste station at Carrum Downs in March 2000.
This meant that Bradshaw was a “clean skin” at the time of Popes Road and Luisa Avenue. For that reason, Ayres spared him of conviction.
Meanwhile, Bradshaw’s companies Mr Gatsby Investments and Australian Waste Recyclers were each fined $5000 in his absence.
He had earlier told the court he was no longer the director of the companies.
In December 2020, EPA Victoria announced it had fined Australian Waste Recyclers $8261 and put the company on notice after inspecting the Berends Drive facility.
