By admin Two people have been arrested in connection with an alleged multi-million pound waste packaging fraud in Cornwall, the Environment Agency has said.
Officers carried out dawn raids at properties in Penzance on Monday, detaining a 47-year-old man and a 47-year-old woman. The operation was led by the Environment Agency with support from Devon and Cornwall Police.
The arrests form part of an investigation into suspected fraud within the Packaging Producer Responsibility regime, a system designed to ensure companies that produce packaging contribute to the cost of recycling.
Under the scheme, reprocessors accredited by the Environment Agency can sell credits for the packaging waste they recycle. Producers are required to buy these credits to demonstrate they have met their recycling obligations.
Investigators believe more than £6m worth of credits were sold for packaging that was claimed to have been reprocessed. However, the agency suspects that a significant proportion of that recycling did not take place and that figures may have been inflated. The two individuals are also suspected of money laundering linked to the alleged fraud.
Both were interviewed and later released pending further investigation. The Environment Agency said evidence gathered during the arrests would now be examined as inquiries continue.
Emma Viner, Enforcement and Investigations Manager at the agency’s National Environmental Crime Unit, said the arrests marked “another important step” in tackling waste crime.
She said officers would “follow the money and act against those profiting from waste crime”, adding that a thorough review of the evidence was under way.
The Circular Economy Minister, Mary Creagh, described the case as “shocking” and said it had harmed legitimate businesses while diverting funds from community recycling services.
She said the government was increasing funding to combat waste crime and introducing tougher checks and penalties for offenders.
The Packaging Producer Responsibility Regulations were introduced to make producers of materials such as glass and plastic pay towards the cost of recycling and disposal.
While legitimate firms purchase credits from authorised waste processors, the credits themselves have a monetary value and have increasingly been targeted by criminal groups seeking to exploit the system.
The Environment Agency’s Economic Crime Unit is leading financial investigations into suspected money laundering in the waste sector.
The agency said that in the past two months its investigations had resulted in 18 arrests linked to waste crime, as part of what it describes as a wider crackdown on illegal activity in the industry.