He has created illegal rubbish and tyre dumps around Canterbury.

Now he is filling a warehouse in central Christchurch with used tyres and is behind on his rent.

A community leader calls him an environmental menace and says he must be stopped.

Others are concerned he will walk away from his latest tyre dump.

But Michael Benny Le Roy, 59, a double bankrupt, says he is "trying to save the planet" and has "a good name in the tyre game".

"We've been taught a lot of lessons … we're here to stay".

He promises to return a paddock in Amberley, where he stored several hundred thousand tyres, to pristine condition by the end of this year and "guarantees" he will not walk away from the warehouse currently filling with tyres.

However his business track record suggests his undertakings need to be viewed carefully.

His legal problems date back at least 15 years to 2004 when Le Roy's icecream vending venture got into trouble. Mr Whippy's Christchurch franchisees claimed he was driving around their regular routes in a van similar to the well-known Mr Whippy brand playing the popular Mr Whippy jingle Greensleeves.

The High Court granted Mr Whippy New Zealand an order forcing Le Roy to desist.

In 2010, Le Roy chalked up his first bankruptcy. It stemmed from the failure of his company Le Roy Investments that was placed in liquidation in October 2009. The business hired out rubbish bins to households and collected the contents. At the collapse, secured creditors were owed $178,000 and unsecured creditors, $182,000.

About 500 tonnes of the rubbish Le Roy collected ended up on a Prebbleton property he rented. It turned out Le Roy owed about $100,000 in dumping fees and had left his landlord with a six figure clean-up job.

"Although Mr Le Roy operated a waste disposal business, he was not prepared to dispose of the rubbish he collected in the correct manner and burned the materials to avoid paying the costs of using a refuse centre," Drummond said.

His attempts to burn the rubbish ended in the Christchurch District Court where in August, 2010, he was fined $1750 for unauthorised rubbish burning and breaching an abatement notice.

At the time, ECan regulation director Kim Drummond said Le Roy's actions showed a "complete disregard" for any environmental impact.

"Although Mr Le Roy operated a waste disposal business, he was not prepared to dispose of the rubbish he collected in the correct manner and burned the materials to avoid paying the costs of using a refuse centre," Drummond said.

In early 2014, Le Roy, under a company called Jamison Investments (now in receivership), became a contractor for Rolleston tyre recycler Tyre Collections Services Ltd, a company owned by Daryl Shackleton.

Shackleton contracted him to collect and deliver tyres for a three year period.

Problems soon arose and, in November 2015, a new tyre company, Tyre Recycling Services New Zealand, was registered. Le Roy's young stepdaughter, Melodie Clark, was listed as its only director and shareholder. 

By January 2016, it was clear Le Roy was approaching Shackleton's clients touting for business, causing Shackleton to terminate his contract with Le Roy.

Le Roy was dumping the tyres he collected at a rural property he leased in Racecourse Rd, Amberley that belonged to local contractor Warren Hislop.

When Shackleton accused Le Roy of going behind his back, Le Roy denied it, but after termination he warned Shackleton against taking legal action.

A phone message said: "I would stop this s... if I was you cause I will start squeezing real f... hard mate and you won't know what I will do. I haven't even started yet...I going to f... bash you son. I won't need force, I will just use people I know.."

The High Court granted an injunction preventing Le Roy and his linked companies from having anything to do with tyre recycling or tyre collections for three years from January 26, 2016, and awarded costs to Shackleton.

Only months later, the company 2016 Tyre Recycling Ltd started up. Its director was Christchurch financial consultant Peter Benden and he was the only shareholder until the shares were transferred to a lawyer's trustee company in September, 2018. The company employed Le Roy and he continued dumping tyres at the Amberley property. 

One post on 2016 Tyre Shredding Ltd's Facebook page said it was certified by ECan, the Motor Trade Association (MTA), the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) and Customs.

None of the organisations provided the certification claimed.

In early 2017 Hislop terminated Le Roy's lease and sent him packing. Later in the year ECan sought orders from the Environment Court to force Le Roy and his associated companies to clean up.

The community had warned about the pile's fire risk and in February, 2018, it was set alight causing a major fire, pollution and a $140,000 clean-up bill for Hislop. A 62-year-old man has been charged with arson.

The Environment Court granted the enforcement orders sought by ECan in April 2018. By then Le Roy was bankrupt so he escaped the orders, but the companies directed by his stepdaughter and Benden were required to remove the tyres no later than the end of 2018.

By the middle of last year about 150,000 tyres remained and ECan charged Tyre Recycling Services New Zealand Ltd and 2016 Tyre Shredding Ltd with failing to comply with the enforcement orders. Clark and Benden faced the same charge.

The charge against Clark was dropped after she claimed she was never a director and her name had been used without her permission. Le Roy denied any wrongdoing and said he was still on good terms with his stepdaughter.

The charges against the companies carry fines of up to $600,000 and a court can jail Benden for up to two years and fine him up to $300,000.

Le Roy is still in the tyre business.

The company leased a warehouse in Leeds St, Phillipstown in July last year, that Le Roy has filled with more than 50,000 tyres.

In February last year, a new company Tyre Shredding 2016 Ltd (a different company to 2016 Tyre Shredding Ltd) came on the scene. Le Roy's wife Marlene, who was discharged from bankruptcy in 2016, is a director and shareholder.

The company leased a warehouse in Leeds St, Phillipstown in July last year, that Le Roy has filled with more than 50,000 tyres.

It's understood Le Roy is behind on his rent for the warehouse, with concerns rising that the owner will be left with a huge clean-up bill.

Christchurch City Council transfer stations charge $10.40 per car tyre for disposal.

Le Roy said he took responsibility for the Amberley tyres, "a hell of a bugbear" for him.

Wet weather had made it hard to get access to the stack and when it was too dry, the pile was a fire hazard.

He claimed to be collecting 10-12,000 used tyres a week and be sending 120 containers to India each year. The containers, which took about 5000 tyres each, were sent to Chennai, a city on the east coast of India, where the steel in the tyres was removed and the rubber used for ink. Others say the tyres end up as dirty fuel in power plants. 

Le Roy said the tyres at Amberley would be gone in 2020. The tyres he was currently collecting would pay for the cleanup.

"They would be long gone if ECan hadn't put at stop to it," he said.

"I'm sorry about Amberley, it's just been one of those things. We will get rid of them...I do my homework. The only thing I regret is the Amberley tyres."

​Shackleton said Le Roy had caused a huge amount of damage to the image of tyre collectors in New Zealand.

"We gave him a chance, assisted him with weekly payments. Leased a truck to him for three months as he could not get finance. We thought everyone deserves a second chance."

He said his involvement with Le Roy had cost his company $200,000 in legal costs and about $300,000 to $400,000 in lost business.

Meanwhile, the tyre stack in Amberley is not going away even though Le Roy says he has removed 70,000 tyres.

Last year ECan asked the Ministry for the Environment's Waste Minimisation Fund for help to remove the tyres but was declined.

ECan chief operating officer Nadeine Dommisse said the landowner had known for some time that the cost of removal might fall to them if the tyre companies failed to comply. The issue for Hislop was raising sufficient funds. She refused to say how much the removal would cost although it's understood the bill would be around $250,000.

She called Le Roy an "environmental menace" and "a disaster" who had to be stopped.

ECan continued to consult with the landowner, she said.

Hislop's farm manager Angelique Hyde said Hislop was working with ECan to resolve the matter and could not comment further on legal advice.

Julia McLean, who has formed the group, Accountability Action, said the saga showed ECan, which was supposed to enforce the Environment Court orders, was "toothless".

She called Le Roy an "environmental menace" and "a disaster" who had to be stopped.

"Somebody needs to broker a deal between Le Roy, Ecan and the landowner to get rid of this fire hazard," she said.

The group had approached other parties and had confirmed Golden Bay Cement in Whangarei would take the tyres and another party would shred them at a reduced charge.

The cement company had developed a furnace that could run on shredded tyres with minimal waste and emissions.

A shipping company had offered to supply containers and ship them to Whangarei at no charge. That still left the community group to find $300,000 for expenses, she said.

"It's come to the point where it needs to be community-driven to get any kind of outcome," she said.

"We have had nothing from ECan on this for months, and it's just going to keep dragging on unless we do something constructive now."

Bruce Gledhill, of consultancy LessWaste, said the responsible solution was to find a use for the tyres domestically instead of using ECan's presumed cheaper option of baling and exporting to India because the use of shredded tyres as fuel was unregulated there.

"Today first world nations expect each other to resolve their disposal challenges internally and with respect for their local environment," he said. "The days of exporting our disposal problems to less fortunate nations are over."

The Ministry for the Environment's Waste Minimisation Fund had contributed almost $18 million to the creation of a tyre derived fuel (TDF) solution in New Zealand, Gledhill said.

"The Amberley tyres should be directed through that process because it's actually our solution, we paid for it through our landfill levies."