A CLEANING company boss was given a conditional discharge for two years and ordered to pay £6,645 in costs after admitting dumping chemical drums in the Wyre Forest area.

Mark Attwood, 32, formerly of Lodge Road, Stourport and now of Chetwin Road, Notting-ham pleaded guilty at Kidderminster magistrates court to six charges relating to dumping the drums.

The charges were brought by the Environment Agency under Sections 33 and 34 of the Environ-mental Protection Act 1990 and the Special Waste Regulations 1996.

Attwood was given the conditional discharge due to his guilty pleas, previous good character and financial difficulties.

For the Environment Agency, Dermot Scully told the court that on February 18, 2005 Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service attended four separate reports of fly-tipped chemical drums in the Wyre Forest area.

One of the drums was labelled, enabling Environment Agency officers to trace their source to premises recently vacated by BWM Sales and Training Limited at Lisle Avenue Industrial Estate, Kidder-minster.

Attwood and his wife ran BWM Sales and Training Limited as a cleaning service company. He was contacted by an Environment Agency officer on the day of the incidents and confirmed he had been responsible for arranging the disposal of the chemical drums from his premises.

He gave details of a company he claimed he had passed the waste to for disposal. This appeared to be a bogus company, however.

On May 10, 2005 and July 11, 2005 Attwood attended the Environment Agency's Kidderminster office for a formal interview and accepted responsibility for causing the chemicals to be fly-tipped.

Speaking for the defendant, Mr Alan Bull said Attwood was ill when he took on the business. "His only offence was in failing to ensure the waste was transferred to a registered carrier. He had no idea the waste was going to be fly-tipped."

After the case, Environ-ment Agency officer, Pete Yeomans said: "Some of the chemicals in the drums were hazardous and deposited close to the River Severn. Other drums were abandoned close to a school and a housing estate.

"These four incidents of fly-tipping were totally irresponsible and potentially very polluting to the environment."