Conman who deceived Peterborough customers over asbestos removal ordered to pay £82,000

A ‘dangerous’ conman who deceived customers – including in Peterborough – over asbestos removal has been ordered to pay back £82,000 of his ill gotten gains.

Lee Charles (40) acted as a de facto director of Lincs Demolition Ltd in securing lucrative jobs across the country, including in Peterborough and Huntingdon, marketing himself as a registered asbestos-removal specialist.

He claimed to be a specialist and registered with the Environment Agency – but he was neither.

Having duped his customers, waste asbestos was stashed in hired storage containers in Welbourn, Lincolnshire, just 200 metres from a school and close to a Girl Guide centre.

When disturbed, asbestos is a hazardous substance and carcinogenic, and the use of asbestos in the UK was subject to an outright ban in 1999, after certain types became outlawed in the 1980s.

Charles, of Caldicot Gardens, Grantham, operated his deception in 43 towns and cities across England, and earlier this year pleaded guilty to lying to customers and giving false paperwork to disguise his deception.

Imposing a 12-month prison sentence in March, suspended for two years, recorder Paul Mann told Charles, who has a string of previous convictions that he “knew the regulatory regime well enough to know what he was doing was seriously wrong.”

However, he said that he was “just” able to suspend the sentence for a period of 2 years so that Charles could pay the Environment Agency’s costs. Charles will also be required to pay compensation to the owners of the Welbourn containers for the not insignificant costs they had incurred in cleaning up the site.

Now he has been ordered to pay back £82,100.

Paul Salter, waste crime officer for the Environment Agency in Lincolnshire, said: “Lee Charles’ crimes were not just illegal, but dangerous."He has been ordered to pay back, and this sends out a clear message to others who flout the law that waste crime does not pay.”

Charles pleaded guilty to two counts of operating a waste operation without a permit, and two counts of keeping or disposing of controlled waste in a manner likely to cause pollution or harm.