The director of a skip hire company has been ordered to pay fines and costs totalling £22,000 for operating an illegal waste site.

Benjamin Lemmon, 37, was hit with the bill after he admitted operating a waste site other than in accordance with an environmental permit at Norwich magistrates.

Lemmon, who runs Skippy Industries Ltd, had a permit to store and treat waste inside buildings at Riverside Farm, Setchey, near King’s Lynn.

But old refrigerators, soiled mattresses, rubble and other waste were piled outside where it risked contaminating the nearby River Nar.

EA officers visited on nine different occasions between May 2018 and April 2019 to give advice, but the company failed to clear the waste.

Barrister Mike McGee, defending Lemmon, said he had little experience of the waste industry and had done his best to clear the waste.

Lemmon was fined £14,000 and ordered to pay £8,170 in costs.

After the hearing, senior environment officer Scott Cunnington said the case was a “wake-up call” to other businesses.