News

A Telford wine merchant found guilty of failing to meet packaging waste obligations will have to wait to find out its fate from a higher court due to the scale of its non-compliance.

Western Wines avoided payment of almost £190,000, including registration fees of £2,486 and recovery and recycling costs of £185,059, from 2003 to 2005.

Although the firm pleaded guilty last week at Telford Magistrates Court to nine offences for failing to register with the Environment Agency and meet its producer responsibility obligations on packaging recovery and recycling, the case has been referred to Shrewsbury Crown Court for sentencing.

An Environment Agency spokeswoman said Telford Magistrates Court could only impose a fine of £5,000 for each offence and this would not reflect the amount that Western Wines had failed to pay.

Shrewsbury Crown Court will determine the sentence in mid-December.

Western Wines is now owned by Constellation Europe.

A Constellation spokesman said: "At the time of the breaches, Western Wines was undergoing changes in the way it conducted its business, and was not aware that those changes resulted in obligations under the Packaging Waste Regulations."

Western Wines has since joined the Valpak scheme and is now fully compliant.