R v Thames Water Utilities Ltd
Courts sentencing very large organisations for environmental offences may impose fines large enough to bring home to management and shareholders the need to comply with the law, potentially up to 100 percent of pre tax profit.
Facts
Thames Water pleaded guilty to an offence of discharging untreated sewage into a brook, after a pump failure at a sewage treatment works which went unnoticed because the alarm system did not work properly. The discharge killed fish. The judge imposed a fine of 250,000 pounds. Thames Water appealed, arguing that the fine was excessive. The court took the opportunity to consider how the Environmental Offences Definitive Guideline should be applied to very large organisations.
Legal principle
The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal. Lord Thomas CJ said that the guideline did not provide specific guidance for very large organisations, whose turnover greatly exceeded the threshold for large organisations. For such organisations, the fine must be large enough to bring home to the management and to the shareholders the need to achieve compliance with environmental law, and in a case of deliberate disregard of the law, it might be appropriate to impose a fine which would result in a significant reduction in the company's pre tax profits, even up to 100 percent. The fine of 250,000 pounds was not excessive, and could have been much higher. Water companies have since received much larger fines.
Related cases on pollution offences, contaminated land and waste
- Alphacell Ltd v Woodward [1972] AC 824
- ARCO Chemie Nederland Ltd v Minister van Volkshuisvesting Joined Cases C-418/97 and C-419/97, [2000] ECR I-4475
- Criminal proceedings against Van de Walle Case C-1/03, [2004] ECR I-7613
- Empress Car Co (Abertillery) Ltd v National Rivers Authority [1999] 2 AC 22
- Inter-Environnement Wallonie ASBL v Région Wallonne Case C-129/96, [1997] ECR I-7411
- Palin Granit Oy Case C-9/00, [2002] ECR I-3533
- R (National Grid Gas plc) v Environment Agency [2007] UKHL 30, [2007] 1 WLR 1780
- R (OSS Group Ltd) v Environment Agency [2007] EWCA Civ 611, [2008] QB 132
Studying environmental law? Our tutors help you understand and apply cases like this in essays, problem questions and exams. Request a quote or browse our law notes.
This summary is for study and revision and is not legal advice. Although our case summaries are checked for accuracy, we do not guarantee that they are free from errors or omissions. Always read the full judgment for the court's reasoning.
