WATER giant Thames Water has been fined £2 million after a ‘reckless failure’ saw the firm pour sewage into an Oxfordshire river killing more than a hundred fish.

Sentencing Judge Peter Ross said today that the company had not learned the lessons from the past after it was fined a record £20m last year for a similar offence.

The water firm - the UK's largest - had already admitted discharging untreated sewage from the Bruern Road Sewage Pumping Station at Milton-under-Wychwood on or before August 9 2015.

Oxford Crown Court heard today that the company caused the water discharge to go into the Idbury Brook in the Cotswolds, West Oxfordshire which saw more than a hundred Bullhead fish killled.

After the pump failed the sewage seeped out into the brook, the court heard, before local residents and the Environment Agency reported dead fish in the river to Thames Water.

Handing out his sentence this afternoon for the breach Judge Ross said that it was 'reckless failure' and a lack of learning lessons from the past that led to the pump failing.

He said: "Had lessons really been learned and implemented from the events in relation to the two previous convictions this would not have happened."

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Oxford Mail:

In mitigation at the hearing, defence barrister for Thames Water Kerim Fuad QC said that the company was sorry for what it had done.

He said: “Thames Water has expressed remorse and deep regret from the outset and entered a guilty plea almost a year ago in January this year.

“They have always and continue to take their responsibilities to the local environment extremely seriously.”

He added that the firm had the largest investment programme out of any other water company with a £5bn project set for the period 2015-20.

The company has an annual turnover of some £2 billion with weekly profits of £2 million.

Thames Water was fined £2 million and ordered to pay costs to the Environment Agency of £79,991.57.