Raking over the embers- The Story Of Sam Shire
By Christy Parker | Photo: Michael Hussey (YoughalOnline.com)
When fire gutted the premises of Sam Shires Services (Recycling) Ltd in Lismore, Co. Waterford last July 14th, it fulfilled prophecies long expressed in the local community. Since the day the plant closed in April 2006, it was considered a torch waiting to be lit.
For two years, almost 2,000 tons of recyclable waste had lain abandoned at the site, the remnants of a failed enterprise in the wake of which entreaties and legal proceedings had failed to spark its removal. Sam Shires never seemed likely to be methodically deconstructed.
It had begun so well. In 1998, Worcestershire businessman Graham Leake, a visitor to area for over 20 years, established Sam Shires on an un-zoned site he had purchased for €50,000 at Ballyrafter, Lismore Bridge. The company received eight start-up payments of totalling IR£40,000 from Waterford County Enterprise Board.
The small pallet recycling operation employed five people and mirrored a similar business Leake operated from his home in Whitbourne, under the similar title Sam Shire [singular] (Recycling) Ltd.
In 2000 Sam Shires relocated to an IDA industrial estate at Mayfield, two miles distant. Leake sold Ballyrafter for housing development, of which each of six units would eventually retail for approximately €400,000. He subsequently bought the Mayfield premises.
In 2001, Sam Shires, in conjunction with waste treatment company, HLC Henley Burrows Ltd. also of Worcester, successfully tendered for a five-year contract to handle Waterford County Council’s kerbside recyclable waste. It was the State’s first such public/private waste management contract. According to Paul Daly, former Senior Engineer at the Council’s Environment Department, Leake also received a Council loan of £25-30,000, which he repaid.
Interestingly, both companies, in conjunction with Roche Engineering Ballinasloe, failed to win a similar tender with Galway Co Council. Meanwhile, Waterford Co. Council declined to check Leake’s business cv, beyond tax clearance. Instead they “found the Henley Burrows CV impressive. We interviewed them and they were very knowledgeable,” explains Mr. Daly. It is unclear what subsequent role, if any, that company played.
Had they checked Leake’s credentials the Council might have unearthed a series of failed businesses, disgruntled creditors and various ongoing enterprises bearing similar ‘Sam Shire’ appendages with some variations on Leake’s own name.
The Council also awarded Sam Shires a contract to empty and process the county’s bottle bank produce. A multi-national workforce of 28 was employed, with the waste baled primarily for sale and shipment to northern England.
Leake, regularly seen driving a blue Jaguar, appears to have been an enigmatic employer and personality. As fire raged through his former business last July, two groups of bystanders voiced opinions. One, containing former waste pickers, described an employer who had regarded them disdainfully, to the point where they would be “timed going to the toilet.” Metres away, former clerical staff spoke of “a kind man who was very good to us” -this despite having worked the final 10 weeks of their employment unpaid, to qualify for redundancy payments.
A committed Bolton Wanderers fan Leake regularly flew locals to matches where corporate hospitality ensued. He sometimes name-dropped high circle acquaintances, including at least one Irish government minister.
Initially Waterford Co. Council paid Sam Shires a gate fee plus subsequent Repak subsidy. “That became a logistical nightmare so eventually we just increased his gate fee and retained the subsidy,” Mr. Daly elaborates. With South Tipperary literally adding weight, Leake processed 600 to 700 tons weekly, on a gate fee of approximately €100 per ton. Shipping costs to Britain were approximately €118 per container of 20 tons. He was doing well, though workers regularly complained of conditions and at least three Health and Safety inspections by Co. Council officials filed critical reports of the business.
As Luck would have it….
Then, in early 2003, Leake stopped sending his segregated and baled product to Britain. Instead he availed of a London-based Trans Frontier Shipping agency called Railuk Environmental Solutions Ltd., operated by a Cameron Luck and a Mr. Paimir Rai. Railuk would buy co-mingled dry waste for shipping to India with Sam Shires further benefiting from a gate fee once it arrived. With no need for segregation, Leake could shed most of his workforce.
Amongst EU and OECD States, transported waste for recovery “within, into and out of the European Community” falls into three categories; Red -toxic/dangerous; Amber -non-hazardous co-mingled Green waste, which in turn was non-hazardous recyclable, like paper and plastic, etc. Of the three, Green waste does not require a TFS licence.
In October 2003, customs officials in Rotterdam and Antwerp intercepted over 100 containers of co-mingled waste categorised as Green and bound for India, where it would not have been accepted had it been properly listed as Amber. Nine Irish local authorities were implicated and up to 20 containers were traceable to Lismore. In December Cameron Luck sought, in vain, the intervention of the Department of Environment, claiming he could not afford the containers’ €5,000 weekly storage costs.
Under pressure from customs official through Waterford County Council, Leake eventually paid out over £50,000 storage and transportation costs before the Sam Shires containers returned to Lismore in February 2004. The ill-fated venture seriously crippled the company, given its low cash flow.
Leake was now in serious difficulty. He couldn’t get his picking line running again. He had containers of waste with nowhere to send them, while simultaneously Waterford County Council were sending him more waste, under contract. Plus, he had the bottle bank recovery and commercial waste to manage. “He finally found a German company to accept the waste but there was a kind of four-month hiatus when he couldn’t move anything and it just piled up,” recalls Mr. Daly. In 2004, the Council opened its own recycling plant in Dungarvan and did not renew the Sam Shires contract.
On June 5th 2005 Sam Shires was involuntarily struck off the register, having failed to file returns since January 2001. Nonetheless, the plant continued trading, still chipping away vainly at the waste. For awhile, it even continued honouring the bottle contract, with the County Council seemingly unaware of it’s non-legal status. That year also, the Council invoiced Sam Shires for €287,000 in respect of advanced gate fees for recycling that had not occurred, plus lost Repak subsidies.
In January 2006, the EPA surprisingly scuppered the Council’s plans for a new landfill outside Dungarvan. Consequentially the waste must eventually be transported outside the county, at enormous cost. The Council upped the invoice to €664,000, inclusive of advanced payment to remove the waste. It was a pointless demand, as the mountain of waste proved too steep to conquer. Sam Shires Services (Recycling) Limited closed its gates in April 2006.
Court Proceedings
Since then, Waterford County Council have sought redress. Last April, in Lismore District Court, they won a prosecution against Sam Shires Services (Recycling) Ltd, in Leake’s absence, under Section 55 of the Waste Management Act, for non-compliance with a notice for waste removal. Leake’s subsequent failure to honour that verdict preceded a High Court action under Section 58 of the Act. That hearing was due to take place on July 15th, the day following the fire.
Instead, agreement was reached that Leake would submit a detailed plan for the recovery, removal and disposal of the waste within eight weeks from the date of commencement of the programme. No plan was submitted and the Council says a return to the High Court is imminent, with contempt of court now likely to be added to the pile.
The county Council is in fact pursuing three court actions that, between them, are focused against the company and against Leake personally. There include 1) removal of waste 2) burden against title and 3) civil action for recovery of lost revenue and associated costs under Section 57 of the Waste Management Act. While reticent to divulge details, the Council says it believes Leake can be held personally liable for the company’s debts, regardless of its Limited status.
Throughout the ponderous legal process the waste has, on legal advice says the Council, remained in situ. Even the inferno failed to disperse it. The work shed of baled cardboard was so crammed that there was insufficient oxygen to combust it, even after the roof collapsed, while the external mounds remained untouched.
Lismore people do not care much whether Waterford County Council win court cases. They just want the rubbish removed. In recent days the Council has commenced removing the roof structure from the site, but the great bulk of the rubbish will remain until the legal is exhausted.
As the Council battles to bring retribution on the site owner, it has also conceded that the clean-up cost could eventually fall to Waterford taxpayers.
Another debtor, also pursuing Leake for money owed, has suggested the remedy may lie in seizing the property, on which the Council has already acquired an injunction against sale. Possession and sale of the tie, it is argued, would go some ways towards meeting the waste removal costs. The site has a Bank of Ireland mortgage on it however and besides, says the Council, “we are after more than that.”
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GRAHAM LEAKE’S MANY TRAVAILS.
Graham Leake 69, is no stranger to failed businesses, property manoeuvres, or court hearings. Alongside Waterford County Council’s High Court Order, at least two other court judgements currently lie against him and/or Sam Shires Services (Recycling) Ltd. in Ireland. In 2002 an employee was awarded €18,000 for injuries sustained at the plant. It is understood he has yet to receive the money. Last year another individual won a Circuit Court judgement against “Graham Leake and Sam Shires Services (Recycling) Ltd” for an unspecified sum.
Presently, Nolan Transport, Wexford is pursuing a substantial debt incurred when transporting baled timber and cardboard to Leake’s Worcestershire address, from December 2001 to December 2002. Co. Waterford’s fire service is billing him €74,000 for the fire call-out.
In June 2005, the same month that saw the Lismore company struck off, Leake dissolved his similarly-titled Worcestershire company, Sam Shire Services Limited, having likewise failed to file returns since 2001. In 2004 the UK Inland Revenue also up another business, leaving six creditors with nothing, according to the Official Receiver.
In July 2006 neighbouring Herefordshire County Council won Enforcement proceedings against him for breach of regulations through mixed use, including residential, agricultural, storage and repair of wooden pallets, at the family home.
He neglected to mention Lismore when quizzed on his business interests over 20 years.
In September 2003 Leake transferred his home ownership to his daughter Margaret. It was subsequently placed on the market with an asking price of €900,000, but failed to sell.
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CAMERON LUCK’S WASTE MANAGEMENT PLANS
Cameron Luck, 44, and business partner Parmir Rai founded Railuk Environmental Solutions in 2002. Railuk, dissolved in 2004, was a Trans-Frontier Shipping agency, with links to Asian markets. Mr. Luck had previous experience in waste transport in Britain and would have been expected to know the basic guidelines.
At the time, Irish local authorities were masters of their own international waste transportation (now the remit of one body- Dublin City Council) and Railuk provided broker services to several of them. Irish law at the time also absolved the broker from liability.
In October 2002, Mr Luck sought information from the Department of Environment on regulations relevant to shipping Green listed waste for recovery to India. The Department stipulated in writing the necessary rules and procedures relevant shipping to non-OECD countries and advised that the Indian authorities might still require prior notification, even for Green waste.
Mr. Luck seems to have conveyed a different message. Waterford County Council did not see his letter of inquiry to the Department, but Mr. Luck produced the written reply. “We lacked information as to the context of that reply and it seemed to us, at face value, to support the view that mixed recyclables were Green-list material and could therefore be legally shipped to India,” recalls then Senior Engineer at Waterford County Council’s Environment Department, Paul Daly.
Unknown to the Council, a landmark European court case had recently altered the interpretation of Amber-list waste from household refuse to include, also, co-mingled recyclables. “Very few local authorities knew this. That letter fooled us -and perhaps Graham Leake,” he concludes.
Railuk was dissolved in 2004. Mr. Luck, 44, now runs Cam-Shron Environmental Ltd., suppliers of waste-handling equipment, from base in Castlebridge, Co. Wexford. He declined to comment other than that Railuk “has noting to do with” Cam-Shron.
In March 2006, Essex-based waste export agency Becciss International, operated by Parmir Rai, was fined £5,000 plus £6,000 costs for “attempting to illegally export co-mingled waste.” The Environment Agency said the offences amounted to a “deliberate or reckless breach of the law rather than a carelessness.”
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