Thames Water fined £20m for polluting river Thames with 1.4bn litres of raw sewage

Thames Water has been hit with a record £20.3m fine for polluting the River Thames.

The firm was today given the largest ever penalty for a water utility company for an environmental disaster.

The company was responsible for polluting the River Thames with 1.4bn litres of raw sewage.

The sewage was dumped in the river in 2013 and 2014 and caused serious damage to wildlife.

Thames Water admitted water pollution and other offences at sewage facilities in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.

The foul spillage came from four Thames Water sewage treatment plants in Aylesbury, Didcot, Henley and Little Marlow.

A sewage pumping system in Littlemore also caused a spillage.

Judge Francis Sheridan handed down a fine of £20,361,140 at the sentencing hearing at Aylesbury Crown Court today.

Judge Sheridan said: "This is a shocking and disgraceful state of affairs."

He added: "It should not be cheaper to offend than to take appropriate precautions."

Thames Water has 21 days to pay.

The judge also took into account seven further incidents at sewage sites on the Thames in 2014.

At a hearing last week, the judge said he had to ensure the fine was "sufficiently large that they (Thames) get the message".

Thames's previous record fine for pollution was £1 million, paid in January 2016.

The sentencing followed a ruling in March 2016 that big commercial organisations which cause environmental pollution can be ordered to pay fines running into tens of millions of pounds.

According to the Environment Agency, which brought the Thames prosecution, the previous largest fine handed down to a water utility for an environmental disaster was given to Southern over an incident on Margate Beach in Kent in 2012.

After the ruling, Richard Aylard, Thames Water's sustainability director, insisted bills would not go up and that the firm had "learnt our lesson".

He said: “In the last three years since the last of these incidents we have learnt our lesson. There have been sweeping changes, better systems and more investment. That’s beginning to pay off.

“Our performance has improved considerably and we are also doing a lot of work which we are proud of.

“The lessons have been learnt. The evidence is there and the evidence will continue to be there in our improved performance, that’s the only reasonable measure.

“Categorically, customers’ bills will not go up. Even if we wanted them to, which we don’t, they are not going to adjust. Shareholders only will pay.

“That’s our job to be responsible for waterways, we have made very significant improvements over the last three years. Our performance is going to keep on improving.

“Over the last three years, since the last of these offences, we have invested a lot in the equipment, had a lot more people involved and got new and better systems."