Former Southern staff to face criminal charges for misreporting

(by Karma Loveday)

The Environment Agency is to take criminal proceedings against Southern Water and a number of former employees for historic wastewater offences, following a judgement by the Administrative Court.

Former chief executive Matthew Wright and three others – Philip Barker, Clive Massey and Mark Gregory – will face a charge of conspiracy to defraud, a common law offence carrying a maximum ten-year prison term. It is alleged that between 1 January 2012 and 31 December 2017, the individuals conspired to defraud the Environment Agency and Ofwat by the implementation of artificial no-flow events at wastewater treatment works to manipulate the operator self-monitoring compliance testing regime.

According to reports, Wright’s solicitor has said he denies all wrongdoing and has co-operated fully with the investigation. His legal challenge against the charge was dismissed by judges last week. 

Southern Water will separately face charges of breaching environmental permits linked to the same conduct. Three further individuals – Mark Butler, Terry Stephens and David James – will also face charges linked to failure to comply with environmental permits.

The case will proceed before the Medway Magistrates Court.

A Southern Water statement said: “We're aware of today’s judgement permitting prosecution by the Environment Agency of former employees. The individuals named are no longer with the company. The charges relate to a historic set of failures between 2012 and 2017. These were uncovered through an internal company investigation in 2017. As soon as they were identified, Southern Water reported them to regulators, including the Environment Agency.

“As previously announced, the company is separately facing charges of breaching environmental permits. This follows an earlier Ofwat investigation into the same issue, which resulted in a customer rebate and penalties being imposed in 2019. We apologised in full at that time and repeat that apology again today.

“Southern Water is a completely different company now than it was a decade ago. Under new leadership and backed by new shareholders, we’ve radically addressed our culture, governance and operations.  We’re serious about further change and improvement, and are investing in our largest ever programme to protect the environment.”

• Southern Water was fined £7.1m at Canterbury Crown Court on 17 July for five illegal sewage pollution incidents across 2019-2021. The court found preventable equipment failures and poor operational oversight were responsible.