A SKIP firm boss - said to have bought up a Bolton rival to keep is business afloat - has been banned from the trade for two years.

Thomas Mark Poole, who ran Leigh-based ETA Skips (NW) Ltd, took over Enviroblast, at Nortex Mill, off Chorley Old Road, last June.

Before then ETA had been embroiled in an Environment Agency prosecution which saw the firm fined £15,000 by magistrates for running an unauthorised waste disposal facility in Butts Street, Leigh.

Mr Poole then acquired an interest in Enviroblast, which held a restricted good vehicle licence to run three vehicles, a traffic commissioner’s inquiry heard.

The inquiry was told the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency had been told of an unauthorised operation centre in Platt Fold Street, Leigh, with ETA Skips liveried wagons, in 2020.

Paul Snelson, a vehicle examiner, observed two skip vehicles, registered to Enviroblast, being operated by ETA. One was the subject of a statutory off-road notice, the hearing was told.

Three other wagons were being run in the area without an MOT certificate or road tax.

Scott Bell, solicitor for Mr Poole, said his client had not acted out of a deliberate disregard for the licensing regime and was trying to put things right, including making a new licence application under the ETA name.

Traffic commissioner Gerallt Evans said Mr Poole had never used a bank account in Enviroblast’s name, since taking it over, and until December 2020 had never used their Nortex Mill base.

The commissioner ruled he had been running vehicles without an operator’s licence before the Enviroblast takeover.

Mr Evans, issuing a two-year ban for Mr Poole, said: “The failings in this case are of such a basic nature (such as the use of untaxed and untested vehicles on the road) they cannot be attributed to ignorance. I am satisfied Mr Poole has shown a deliberate and blatant disregard to road traffic law as well as the requirements of operator’s licensing.”