The operators of two unlicensed dumps in Adelaide have been hit with record fines and penalties of more than $1 million.
In a decision handed down on Wednesday, the South Australian Environment, Resources and Development Court fined D&J Holdings SA Ltd, its manager Kevin Wayne Green and director Shirley Ann Moros a total of $511,000.
The court also ordered they pay a further $680,000 to the Environment Protection Authority over the operation of waste facilities at suburban Penfield and Direk where construction and demolition waste was dumped without proper licences.
Those funds will be used to help remediate the sites.
All three defendants had pleaded guilty to two counts of undertaking an activity of environmental significance without an EPA authorisation, two counts of causing material environmental harm and three counts of failing to comply with clean-up orders.
In its ruling, the environment court found that Green, Moros and the company knew they required EPA authorisation to operate waste facilities and said their sophisticated business model of undercutting licensed operators involved serious examples of deliberate offending.
The fines and penalties imposed are a record for an EPA prosecution in SA.
