Multi-national owned International Paint Ltd, owned by multi-national AkzoNobel, was fined £650,000 and ordered to pay costs of £144,992 in court yesterday after a banned chemical entered the Site of Special Scientific Interest designated Yealm estuary in Devon.

NI Water has welcomed the outcome of a successful prosecution against a developer who had failed to install proper water connections to properties at two separate developments.

Anglian Water was fined a total of £563,609.21and ordered to pay £27,439.21 in costs last week after a treatment plant failure in 2018 let millions of litres of sewage into a river killing invertebrate and fish across 3 kilometres.

The Government has today confirmed that money from fines handed out to water companies for polluting rivers and seas will be re-invested in schemes that benefit the natural environment.

According to the newly-released Regulating for people, the environment and growth, 2021 (RPEG) annual report by the Environment Agency, the environmental performance of the water companies in England was the worst seen for years.

International Paint Ltd, owned by multi-national AkzoNobel, appeared before Plymouth Crown Court on Thursday 27 October 2022, where, at the end of a nine-day hearing, it was found guilty on two charges.

Anglian Water has been fined a total of £871,000 after a catalogue of system and maintenance failures caused separate incidents of pollution across 3 counties.

Anglian Water has been fined in two separate court cases this week after causing four pollution incidents in watercourses as a result of blockages and broken infrastructure.

Yorkshire Water has been fined £1,600,750 for polluting a Bradford watercourse in a prosecution brought by the Environment Agency. It was also ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £170 and £22,112.79 in costs.

Frome farmer Michael Aylesbury, a director of Cross Keys Farms Ltd, has been ordered to pay more than £25,000 for polluting the River Frome, Frome, Somerset.