Severn Trent Awaits Court Fine

A UK water provider is facing an unlimited court fine, after it was found to be lying about leakage statistics.

Severn Trent Water is awaiting sentencing from the Old Bailey this week, having already been hit by a record £35.8 million penalty for the malpractice earlier this year by industry watchdog Ofwat. A report in the Daily Mail suggests that the additional fine could total around £70 million.

The firm was found by the regulator to have reported water losses 340 megalitres per day, when it was aware that the actual figure stood at 514 megalitres. Falsifying the leakage statistics led to Severn Trent avoiding penalties and bad publicity, which allowed shareholders to profit from the lies.

In its defence, Severn Trent is claiming that the fine should be reduced due to the fact that the water executives who originally submitted the false figures, Brian Duckworth and Mark Wilson, have both since left the company.

The original allegations of lying about leakage were made by a whistle-blowing Severn Trent employee in 2004.

Responding to the original Ofwat fine in April, the firm's chief executive Tony Wray acknowledged "misreporting and poor service". He added: "Those who were responsible for the customer relations mistakes are no longer with Severn Trent and we apologise to our customers for their failings."