Fines for illegal waste depot and abuse of officers
Charges relating to an illegal waste depot and foul-mouthed abuse and threats to EPA officers have seen a father and son fined in the ERD Court.
Trevor Coghlan, 64, pleaded guilty to operating a waste depot without a licence, failing to comply with a clean-up order, four counts of using abusive and insulting or threatening language to an authorised officer, and one count of hindering an authorised officer. He was fined a total of $24,500.
His son, David Coghlan, 39, pleaded guilty to one count each of using abusive or insulting language and hindering an authorised officer and fined $4,900.
In delivering the sentence, Judge Costello described Trevor Coghlan’s abuse of EPA officers as “crude, aggressive and appallingly offensive behaviour towards persons who were simply trying to do their job”.
Trevor Coghlan had been receiving scrap metal for recycling at the Cavan property, and EPA officers found generators, transformers and several mining trucks when they inspected the site in March 2015.
They also found oil-stained soil in several places, including heavy staining next to the workshop and sheds, and near the mining trucks. Large containers of drained oil were being stored on bare earth, rather than in a bunded area as required, with oil staining visible around them.
Mr Coghlan, who was living on the site at the time, claimed that vandals had scaled a fence and drained the oil from the transformers, but in a statement provided to the EPA, he admitted allowing oil to drain directly onto the ground while dismantling machinery.
Samples obtained by the EPA found soil contamination with petroleum hydrocarbons at a level that would make it unsafe for anyone to live or work there.
The EPA ordered Mr Coghlan to cease receiving waste at the site, and issued him with an environment protection order and a clean-up order that required him to have a plan in place by 30 June 2015 to make good the environmental damage.
Mr Coghlan did not comply with the clean-up order, and was abusive and threatening to EPA officers when they telephoned or visited the site to check on progress, and again when officers returned with SA Police to execute a warrant.
The Coghlans were evicted from the property in October 2018 and owner DPTI is now assessing the level of contamination and what clean-up might be required.