A London waste company has been ordered to pay more than £1.2 million for offences.

Powerday Plc has been sentenced for offences related to historical operations in two separate sites. The company previously admitted its guilt to the offences.

According to the Environment Agency the firm stored and deposited a total of more than 17,000 tonnes of waste illegally.

The first case involved the receipt and storage of 14,500 tonnes of hazardous waste at the company’s main operating site at Willesden in 2010.

The company argued that it was legally entitled to store more than 10 tonnes of certain types of hazardous waste at the site in accordance with its interpretation of the permit.

However the Environment Agency found that the permit did not allow the company to store that quantity of hazardous waste at the site.

The second is related to offences at a site in Oxfordshire in 2012 which involved the deposit of approximately 3,000 tonnes of non-hazardous trommel fines originating from the Willesden site.

The firm previously agreed in court to remove the waste deposited at its own cost. The removal was completed in 2015.

Counsel for the company informed the court that the cases were now several years in the past, the company had corrected and improved its systems and procedures and that it had now developed excellent working relations with the Environment Agency.

The company and its managing director apologised to the court for the historic failures which had given rise to the offences.