FOUR directors of a waste disposal company, who sparked a diplomatic row by illegally shipping 15,000 tons of household waste to South America, are facing jail.
Father and son Julio and Juliano Da Costa, Simon Edwards, 46, and Romford resident Jonathan Coombe, 42, mixed ordinary waste with legitimate recycling being sent to Brazil for processing.
The quartet dispatched 89 shipping containers of rubbish collected from London and Lincolnshire, breaching strict export rules for waste disposal.
When the scam was unearthed, the Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva complained to the British Government about the shipments.
Julio Da Costa, 52, and his son Juliano, 28, the company secretary, admitted breaching waste shipment regulations. Edwards and Coombe, along with the two companies Worldwide Biorecyclables Ltd and UK Multipas Ltd which operated the scam, had already entered guilty pleas.
All four men will now be sentenced next month, and could face up to two years in prison.
"He (Juliano Da Costa) played a number of roles, including interpreting and writing emails for his father," said prosecutor Sailesh Mehta at the Old Bailey.
"His was a role in the business, although as a son, as a secretary in one company until December and as a director of the new company that arose from the old one from about March."
The shipping containers were dispatched between September 9, 2008, and July 22, 2009, originally through Worldwide Biorecyclables Ltd and after that company was disbanded through the new firm UK Multipas Ltd.
All four men have been bailed on condition they reside at their home addresses ahead of a sentencing hearing on March 7.
Coombe, of North Hill Drive, Juliano Da Costa, of Morley Street, Swindon, Julian Da Costa, of Bridge Street, Swindon, and Edwards, of Debden Road, Loughton, all admitted breaches of the Transfrontier Shipment of Waste Regulations 2007.
The two companies have pleaded guilty to the same charge.
