Southern Water has been sentenced to pay record £90 million in fines for widespread pollution after pleading guilty to 6,971 unpermitted sewage discharges.

Southern Water has been handed a record £90 million fine after pleading guilty to thousands of illegal discharges of sewage which polluted rivers and coastal waters in Kent, Hampshire and Sussex.

The sentence follows 51 guilty pleas to widespread and long-term breaches of environmental law by Southern Water between 2010 and 2015. The offences were found to be caused by deliberate failings, causing major harm (Category 1) to protected areas, conservation sites and oyster beds.

The case, which is the largest criminal investigation in the Environment Agency’s 25-year history, saw pollution offences from 16 wastewater treatment works and one storm overflow brought together in one prosecution at Canterbury Crown Court.

Read more on gov.uk here. The Southern Water statement is here.

The press has not been kind, with the Guardian headline talking of “deliberately pouring sewage into sea” and “the worst environmental crime in the 25-year history of the Environment Agency”, and similar headlines in the Times and elsewhere.

Also in the Guardian

‘The sea was milky white’: how the Southern Water sewage scandal unfolded

England’s water system: the last of the privatised monopolies – for now

Southern Water timeline: from privatisation to pollution fines