A BARBER will have to pay out more than �1,000 after he was fined under environmental protection laws.

Babergh District Council has welcomed the decision by magistrates in Bury St Edmunds to slap Lee Haynes, who owns Lee’s Barber Shop in Gaol Lane, Sudbury, with a �500 fine.

He will also have to pay �581.89 in costs and a victim surcharge of �15 after failing to account for how he disposed of waste from his business.

Haynes, who was brought to court after previously failing to attend, admitted failing to show he disposed of waste produced by his business in a lawful manner.

He was previously prosecuted twice in 2009 for similar offences when he chalked up fines and costs amounting to �2,361.

By law all businesses are required to keep ‘waste transfer’ documents to prove that their waste is either collected by a licensed carrier or to show that it has been disposed of at a waste disposal site licensed to take commercial waste.

This is routinely checked by councils.

Babergh served notice on Haynes last October requiring him to provide waste transfer notes, but he repeatedly failed to demonstrate that he disposes of his waste lawfully.

James Buckingham, Babergh’s principal environmental protection officer, said: “We are very pleased with the result. The council has done its utmost to assist Mr Haynes to comply with his legal obligations without recourse to the Courts.

“We have given Mr Haynes numerous opportunities to produce waste transfer documents and on each occasion he was explicitly advised that the council would have no option but to prosecute him if he failed to do so.

“It is regrettable that Mr Haynes simply does not seem to accept that he has a duty to prove he is disposing of his waste legitimately. Paying for commercial waste to be collected and disposed of lawfully is an everyday cost of running a business, which thousands of businesses both in the Babergh district and nationally have to bear.

“Businesses which seek to avoid these costs and their legal obligations, receive an unfair advantage over their competitors.

“Much of the business waste which is not accounted for ends up being fly-tipped on our streets and fields – which blights parts of the district and ultimately costs the council taxpayer in clearing it away.

“The fine, which was reduced to take account of Mr Haynes’s guilty plea, is much greater than the cost of a business waste contract. Therefore this conviction sends a clear message.”