The Court of Appeal has dismissed Midland Scrap Metal Company Ltd.’s appeal against a decision that a waste licence held by another company did not authorise Midland Scrap to operate a waste facility under a private arrangement.
In a judgment delivered on 2 March 2016, Mr Justice Gerard Hogan said the licence was personal to its holder. The court affirmed the High Court decision and dismissed the appeal, leaving in place the decision that had upheld Midland Scrap’s District Court conviction.
The prosecution arose from waste activities at a facility at 41 Cookstown Industrial Estate, Tallaght. A licence for waste processing there had been transferred to Greenstar Materials Recovery Limited in 2004. Greenstar’s licensed activities ceased in 2006, but it did not complete an application to surrender the licence and remained its holder.
Midland Scrap entered the facility in 2008 and processed metal waste, including by sorting, shearing, baling and slicing. It did not hold a waste licence for its activities there. District Court findings recorded that inspectors found Midland Scrap carrying out waste activities during the period covered by the summons. They also recorded that Greenstar accepted responsibility as licence holder and had pleaded guilty to a separate offence involving activity at the site in breach of licence conditions.
Midland Scrap argued that it operated under a private licence or agreement from Greenstar and that the legislation licensed the activity at a facility, rather than requiring each operator to hold a licence. It also relied on Greenstar’s separate conviction as recognition that the activities took place under Greenstar’s licence.
The Court of Appeal rejected that interpretation. Hogan J said the statutory scheme required an operator to act “under and in accordance with” a licence issued to that operator. He pointed to the requirement that licence applicants be fit and proper persons, and to the statutory transfer process, which requires a joint application and an assessment of the proposed transferee’s suitability by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The court concluded that a private arrangement could not transfer the licence’s legal effect to Midland Scrap. Greenstar’s licence therefore did not provide Midland Scrap with a defence to the charge of recovering or disposing of waste without its own licence. The appeal concerned the legal effect of the licence; the Court of Appeal affirmed the High Court’s decision and dismissed the appeal.