Two men from Geelong and Ballarat have been fined after they were found with a trailer load of asbestos.
Jason Kilday was fined $4000 without a conviction, and Peter Ranton was convicted and fined $2000. Both men were ordered to pay more than $2000 each in court costs to EPA.
The charges followed a day in September 2021 when the men were observed removing asbestos from a house in Torquay despite neither being licensed to do the job.
Police intercepted the car towing the asbestos in an unregistered trailer that didn’t have the appropriate EPA permission to transport the asbestos.
EPA officers took samples to identify the waste and confirmed it was asbestos.
Environment Protection Authority (EPA) Southwest Regional Manager Carolyn Francis said poorly handled asbestos could have harmful effects on people’s health.
“There is strong regulation of asbestos because it is so common in older buildings, vehicles and other items produced before the hazards were known,” she said.
“The licensing of trained removalists, the requirement to have an EPA registration to transport asbestos, and the strong controls on facilities that accept asbestos waste are parts of a system designed to safely remove, transport and dispose of asbestos.
“In this case, the system designed to protect the community had been bypassed.”
The case involved a team effort from the police, the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action and EPA Victoria to examine and track the hazardous load.
