A waste management company which had a rat infestation and breached the terms of its licence has had its fines cut by £9,000.

EJ Shanley (Trowbridge) Ltd also allowed litter to spread into fields neighbouring their Green Lane premises.

The company was ordered to pay £25,000 after admitting five offences when they appeared before magistrates in March.

But after launching an appeal a judge sitting at Swindon Crown Court on Thursday with two magistrates cut the penalty on three of the charges.

John Dyer, prosecuting, said the company had a permit under the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2007 which they breached in five ways.

He told the court that they saved money by failing to control vermin creating one of the worst cases of rat infestation the investigating officer had seen.

They also failed to clear litter and loose waste from the site and the area surrounding it.

The third contravention came when they stored fire extinguishers, lead acid batteries and other controlled waste which was not covered by their permit.

Another offence related to failure to maintain the tipping bay walls, which must be at least two metres high.

Finally the company’s permit only allowed it to handle 5,000 tons of waste a year at the site but over six months in 2007 he said 7,210 tons was processed there.

The company, who admitted all the offences, were fiend £5,000 for each of the five breaches.

Mr Dyer said the officer visited the transfer station on May 16, 2008, and as he was parking his car he saw rats moving around the site.

Further checks revealed the rats had colonised an earth bund and the company had made no attempt to control their numbers.

During a follow-up visit two weeks later no improvements were seen.

Chris Smyth, defending, said the rat infestation had now been dealt with and the litter problem, which affected neighbouring farmland, had also been addressed.

The walls of the bays had also been rebuilt and were more secure than before.

He said the excessive throughput was found out as a result of the company’s returns to the Environment Agency so they were not trying to hide it.

Since the deficiencies were uncovered he said the company had done a great deal to put things right.

He said the Environment Agency had also agreed to their permit being expanded to allow a higher amount of waste to pass through the site.

Mr Smyth said the point of the appeal was to challenge the level of the fines which he called ‘excessive’ saying the company had worked with the agency to improve the site.

Judge Douglas Field said they rejected the appeal regarding the storage of the controlled waste in the wrong area and allowing too much throughput.

However he upheld the appeals regarding the rats, litter and tipping bay walls and reduced the fines on each to £2,000.