A WA cement producer has successfully appealed for a reduced fine after being found guilty of releasing emissions with an “offensive” and “horrendous” odour.
A WA cement producer has successfully appealed for a reduced fine after being found guilty of releasing emissions with an “offensive” and “horrendous” odour.
Adbri subsidiary Cockburn Cement was fined $290,000 in March, after a three-week trial in the Magistrates Court of Western Australia.
In a judgment delivered on Friday, WA Supreme Court Justice Anthony Derrick set aside the fine and handed down a revised sentencing of a $245,000 penalty.
Justice Derrick also allowed Cockburn Cement leave to appeal on multiple legal grounds.
Cockburn Cement pleaded not guilty to 15 charges of emitting an unreasonable emission, namely odour, from its Munster plant between January and April in 2019.
Magistrate Heidi Watson in March last year found the company guilty of six of the charges and handed Cockburn Cement a single fine of $290,000 in March.
In the Supreme Court judgment, Justice Derrick last week said the $290,000 fine was not only high but it was so unreasonable or unjust as to be manifestly excessive.
“In my opinion the appropriate total fine for the offences, taking into account all the factors that I have referred to … is $245,000,” he said.
“As I have stated, in my opinion the appellant's offending viewed overall fell towards, but not at, the middle of the range of seriousness for offending against [the legislation].
“However, there were a number of significant mitigating factors in the appellant's case.”
According to the judgment, Magistrate Watson found the odour unreasonably interfered with the comfort of residents in Beeliar and Yangebup, as per their testimonies.
“The odour was 'absolutely horrendous…very unpleasant…with an intensity of eight or nine out of 10',” the judgment said.
“He [a resident] estimated that he smelt the odour for two and a half to three hours.
“The odour was analogous to an intermittent smell of pet faeces over a neighbour’s fence.
“The odour was quite offensive and uncomfortable.”
Justice Derrick found there was an alleged error of fact in the initial magistrate's ruling but he did not deem it to be a substantial miscarriage of justice.
