THE director of a skip hire company guilty of flouting environmental rules has been remanded in custody over further accusations of illegal waste dumping.

Raymond Shepherd, 57, from Albert Hill Skip Hire, in Darlington, was arrested earlier this month after being accused of depositing waste on the firm's Dodsworth Street base without an Environment Agency permit three times.

Shepherd, of West Musgrave Farm, St Helen Auckland, County Durham, and the company, were found guilty of ten charges of operating without Environment Agency licences at their Dodsworth Street and Whessoe Road bases between 2008 and 2010 after a trial at Teesside Crown Court.

Shepherd applied for bail at Newton Aycliffe Magistrates’ Court, but his request was turned down, and he was detained to re-appear at Peterlee Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, November 6.

Following the guilty verdict in the trial in August, Judge Tony Briggs deferred sentencing Shepherd and bailed him on the condition he refrained from dumping waste in Dodsworth Street.

During the five-week trial, Shepherd maintained the firm had an exemption from the Environment Agency and had not polluted any areas near the two depots.

He said: "I am as enthusiastic in avoiding pollution and even during the fire at Dodsworth Street, the water used to put it out went into the nearby river and there was never any sign of pollution."