The leak resulted in a high state of alert, requiring the attendance of officers from Suffolk Fire Service in chemical protection suits and breathing apparatus and the evacuation of the area around the parked lorry, due to concerns over the chemicals contained in the leaking liquid.

Mrs Miriam Tordoff, prosecuting, claimed that AMR - which was acquired by metal recycling giant Sims Metal Management in February 2009 - had failed to comply with legislation including the Transfrontier Shipment (TFS) Regulations and had tried to illegally export waste to China - though the company claimed it did not realise it was breaking the law.

AMR pleaded guilty to three offences relating to the incident, which took place on March 27 2007, including shipping waste illegally under the TFS Regulations, failing to comply with its Duty of Care in relation to the labelling of the waste, and, failing to prevent the escape of the waste from the containers.

The company was fined £5,000 for each of the offences, and ordered to pay full prosecution costs of £7,649.61.

Discovery

Mrs Tordoff told the court that the discovery of liquid leaking from the cables had been made by a driver following behind the container as it was transported to the port in Suffolk.

The lorry's driver, Geoffrey Barto,n moved the vehicle to a safer place at a lorry park before calling the emergency services, but the court was told that paperwork did not identify what the liquid might be, and, as a result, a state of high alert was declared.

Fire officers were concerned that it might contain polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which can harm the environment or people's health, while the Environment Agency, which had been alerted to the situation, instructed the company to take the container back to its premises in a safe way without further leakage.

Investigations discovered that AMR has contracted Priority Freight Midlands to make the arrangements for transporting what it described as scrap metal to China, and five containers were ordered from shipping company Yang Ming.

Yang Ming then contracted haulage company James Kemball Ltd to transport the containers in the UK, who in turn contracted the driver's company, G'n'J.

The court heard how, while the description of the cables started as 'scrap metal', it was then changed to 'scrap grade' and later to 'general cargo' - a term used to prevent the load from being at risk of theft and to protect the driver.

However, due to that description, the emergency services did not know what the leaked liquid was likely to be.

Carcinogen

EA tests revealed that, while PCBs were not found in the liquid, it did contain mineral oil and coal tar - a category 1 carcinogen - and as a result should have been classified as hazardous waste.

The export of hazardous waste to China is banned, and Mrs Tordoff told the court that the waste should have been tested or sampled before being transported.

She said: "Those who operate in the waste business should be aware of all the relevant legislation, including the Transfrontier Shipment Regulations."

"Exported banned waste to China impacts on those businesses who operate legitimately and do not export banned waste," she added.

Ian Clark, who was operations manager at AMR at the time of the incident, told EA officers that the cable had been brought from an Icelandic scrap metal company on the basis of its copper and lead content.

As he had not seen any contamination or staining on the ground when the cable was loaded at AMR's yard, he believed the leak had been caused by the sun warming up the cable in the container which caused the covering to melt.

Mr Clark explained that exports of different types of cables had been made before, but the company had only been aware of the TFS Regulations since the investigation - though he added that they had since employed someone with experience in the waste industry to advice on waste aspects.

Mitigation

In mitigation, AMR said a representative had attended the incident immediately and had dealt with all the EA's requests, as well as recompensing the fire service for their time and James Kemball for the clean-up and loss of driver's earnings, at a total expense of £19,000.

The company also said it was now fully versed in the TFS Regulations.

However, sentencing, the chair of the bench, Mrs Meg Clibon said the magistrates had considered sending the case to crown court for sentencing and that the offences were "quite clearly serious with a great potential for harm', but the court had retained the case due to AMR's lack of previous convictions and guilty pleas.

Commenting on the case, the EA's crime investigator, Phil Henderson, said: "This case highlights the problem of illegal waste exports leaving the UK to destinations where environmental safeguards are not as rigorous as those here.

"It is of great concern in this case that there was a leakage of hazardous material from the container which not only had the potential to harm the environment but also human health.

Sims

Commenting on the case, a spokesman for Sims Metal Management told letsrecycle.com: "This environmental breach occurred in 2007 while All Metal Recovery Limited was in private ownership.

"The business was acquired by Sims Metal Management in February 2009, and in keeping with all business acquisitions, is now subject to the rigorous environmental standards and controls practiced by Sims Metal Management.

"Sims Metal Management enjoys a positive environmental compliance record in the UK, in keeping with its status as one of the ‘Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World' as announced at the 2009 World Economic Forum in Davos," he added.