A TYRE company was slammed with a £27,000 fine and the manager ordered to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work for illegal dumping.

Autowaste Services Scotland Ltd and manager Stephen Gillies had pleaded guilty at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court to depositing, keeping, sorting and baling waste tyres without a licence after 46,000 tyres were found at the site.

On Wednesday a sheriff handed down the punishment as Scotland's environmental watchdog warned all companies to work legally.

Terry A’Hearn, SEPA’s Chief Executive, said: “This is the sort of tough action we need to be seen taking against these sort of operators who have no regard for Scotland’s environment.

“Every society has a series of waste streams, it’s important that they’re minimised, it’s important that, to the extent we have them, they’re managed properly.

"This behaviour is the opposite of that, and SEPA will continue to take action against these sorts of operators and make sure they’re held to account.

"So this is a message to good operators in the waste sector, that you won’t be undermined by this sort of poor performance.

"And it’s a message to the community that your environment will be looked after because we will find these sort of operators and make sure that the appropriate enforcement action is taken.”

SEPA officers visited the site 18 times between October 2014 and October 2015 after they discovered that many more waste tyres were being kept or deposited onto the site than were allowed.

Numerous verbal discussions took place with the company’s management and they were sent advisory letters, warning letters and statutory notices.

In October 2015 there were more than 46,000 waste tyres at the site.

At that time, an operator needed to hold a waste management licence if more than 1000 waste tyres were being stored on a site.

The illegal and improper storage of large numbers of tyres presents a serious fire risk to the environment and communities.

A waste management licence would include the requirements that must be in place to provide protection to the environment and human health.

As the risk to the environment at this site was significant, and the company did not take the required action to bring the site into compliance, SEPA pursued criminal prosecution by submitting a report to the Procurator Fiscal.

SEPA’s Amanda Reilly said: “SEPA works every day to protect the environment and we are very clear that compliance is not optional.

“In addition we would strongly urge landowners leasing out premises to businesses or individuals to remain vigilant to it being used for illegal waste activities such as the unauthorised storage of tyres.

"It is essential that landowners are aware they may have to pay out thousands of pounds for the removal of tyres left abandoned on their land by someone else.

"In this instance the local authority was left with a bill of nearly £60,000 to clear the site."