NT environmental watchdog shuts down elaborate tyre dumping scam

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The Northern Territory's environmental watchdog has shut down an elaborate scam which has left two businesses with mountains of old tyres and a massive clean-up bill. The scam targets businesses with stacks of worn tyres, offering discounted recycling, collecting payment and then dumping the tyres elsewhere.

Transcript

00:00Piled high on this city block in Darwin, a mountain of old tyres and a nightmare ordeal

00:09for Anwar Albatat.

00:11I was away for two weeks and when I came back I saw this big junction of them are here.

00:17I feel very frustrated, I can't even sleep comfortably.

00:22Anwar rents this space to build and sell tiny homes.

00:26At the beginning of the year, a tyre recycling company also moved in.

00:31They had a licence from the NT's Environmental Protection Agency or EPA and they paid the

00:36rent on time.

00:37Everything seemed to be 100% genuine.

00:41But it wasn't long before he realised something was wrong.

00:45Questions start to rise, alarms start to come up and we start to ask what's exactly happening

00:51with these guys.

00:52Anwar and his landlord had fallen victim to a long running tyre dumping scam, impacting

00:58people across the country.

01:00The scam targets businesses with large amounts of worn tyres on their premises, offering cheap

01:07recycling services.

01:09They collect the payments but then dump the tyres in the backyards of homes they've rented

01:14or commercial lots like Anwar's before vanishing with the cash.

01:19Each tyre costs about $30 to go rip off.

01:22You can imagine how much it will cost, maybe $70,000, $80,000.

01:26A legitimate, Darwin-based recycling company, Entex, was also targeted by the same scammers,

01:33who trucked in 20 tonnes of tyres for recycling but never paid the bill.

01:38With numerous failed attempts to track them down, Entex returned the tyres to the address

01:43they'd been provided, the property where Anwar makes his tiny homes.

01:48In May, following a tip-off from interstate authorities, the NTEPA opened an investigation

01:54into the company, Soul Traders, and then shut down their licence.

01:58Northern Territory Police are also investigating.

02:02There is money to be made and I could certainly understand the appetite of scammers to be in

02:10that particular scam.

02:12The victims left wondering what just happened.

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