Express & Star

Illegal Oldbury rubbish dumpers face £2 million fine

A father and son who made a fortune out of illegally dumping rubbish are facing a joint bill of up to £2 million, a judge heard.

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Ranbir 'Nick' Singh, 44, and 64-year-old Balwant 'Bob' Singh Bagrhia stockpiled thousands of tons of refuse they had been paid to take to landfill sites.

The younger man, who lives at Goode Close, Oldbury, was jailed for 18 months at Wolverhampton Crown Court in January last year after pleading guilty to seven offences involving illegal dumping and contravening an environmental permit.

His father - from Victoria Road, Oldbury - who admitted four offences, received a 12 month suspended jail term.

Balwant 'Bob' Bagrhia

Both were back in the court yesterday for a Proceeds of Crime hearing where Bagrhia admitted benefiting to the tune of £1.26m from the offence and his lifestyle during the six years before the conviction. His son agreed that the sum in his case was £846,000.

They now have to prove that cash and assets discovered by forensic accountants to have passed through their hands over that period of time were either legally earned or are no longer available to be seized.

Baghia has admitted making 'unexplained' withdrawals from various bank accounts, revealed Mr Nicholas Cole prosecuting, who continued: "The issue is the purpose to which the money was put." The defendant maintains that he no longer has it.

Singh - who has subsequently changed his first name to Ravinder by deed poll - is accused of withdrawing a total of £463,820 between October 28 2013 and January 10 2014 - days before he was jailed.

The money was paid in cash from various branches of Barclays Bank in Oldbury, Smethwick, West Bromwich and Birmingham through withdrawals authorised by his signature, the court heard.

It came from the account of Oberon Recycling, a firm of which he had been listed as a director for three months up to November 26 2013 and was a signatory, said Mr Cole.

Ranbir 'Nick' Singh

There was no mention of these payments in an official statement of Singh's financial affairs made in June this year and an explanation was only provided at the beginning of this week.

The money was needed to pay customers through a third party for metal bought by Oberon Recycling which could not make cash payments direct.

No address was provided for the other firm allegedly involved and investigators had failed to find any trace of it, the court heard.

Judge Martin Walsh observed: "It is being suggested that that this was a fanciful explanation." The case was adjourned until today for further inquiries.

The father and son ran Langley Skip Hire that packed a site in Nelson Street, Oldbury with 1,200 tons of rubbish that was so high it spilled onto the road and threatened to bring down a wall.

In September 2010 they expanded the operation and started to pour up to 23 lorry loads of waste a day into Butlers Yard in neighbouring Parsonage Street which they leased for £3,000-a-month.

Fourteen months later it was filled with over 3,000 tons of refuse and they moved onto a third site in West Bromwich Street, Oldbury which Singh started to lease in November 2011.

He was not allowed to tip waste at either this address or Butlers yard and had broken the rules of the permit allowing him to set up a waste transfer station on the land he leased in Nelson Street.

The Proceeds of Crime hearing continues today.

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