Metal dealer loses another scrap

Bill Conway

The only man jailed for pollution offences in New Zealand has lost his latest legal fight, opening the way for authorities to shut down his scrap yard after an earlier attempt failed.

Cash for Scrap's Bill Conway has managed to evade the legal net cast by Auckland Regional Council for more than four years, although he went to jail last year for half of a three-month term after being convicted over operation of the yard at Bairds Rd, Otara.

An attempt by ARC to shut the site down under special Resource Management Act powers went embarrassingly wrong this year when it got orders to seize the site at 11 Bairds Rd without realising Cash for Scrap was also operating from the next-door yard at No.13. After effectively shutting down No.11, the council was forced to leave No.13 alone and Cash for Scrap continued in business.

Now ARC has been granted another enforcement order covering the second site and looks poised to swoop again.

ARC compliance and enforcement manager Brent Evans said he welcomed the Environment Court orders, issued late last month, but the council would "continue to follow due process in order to ensure Cash for Scrap complied with environmental regulations". The order allows the council to issue a set of instructions to clean up the site and take it over if conditions are not met.

But Mr Conway's lawyer, Tony Banbrook, said the latest enforcement order would be appealed and a stay sought. "It's another round in the endless round of litigation," he said.

During the latest hearing, Mr Conway denied he was the owner of the business, instead saying he was only a "consultant". Shown proof his wife, Carol Margaret Down, was the sole shareholder of Cash for Scrap, Mr Conway continued to distance himself from the day-to-day running of the yard.

Judge Jeff Smith called that a continuation of Mr Conway's "long line of obfuscation and avoidance" and called him an "unreliable and disingenuous witness".

Since 2001 Cash for Scrap has incurred fines of $150,000.

ARC pollution officers say toxic waste from the yard's operation, including heavy metals, petrol, diesel and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) - toxic compounds linked to cancers - have been detected at the site.

Judge Smith said it was reasonable to assume pollution run-off from the yard found its way into a stream on the western boundary and polluted waterways which eventually drained into Manukau Harbour.