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Southern Water ex-boss charged over alleged manipulated water tests
The allegations cover a plan, said to involve artificial no-flow events, aimed at reducing potential penalties under environmental permits between 2012 and 2017.
BBC Business reports that Matthew Wright, the former chief executive of Southern Water, has been charged alongside three other individuals over an alleged plan to manipulate water quality tests to avoid paying millions of pounds in penalties.
The prosecution case alleges Wright conspired with Philip Barker, Clive Massey, and Mark Gregory to defraud the Environment Agency and Ofwat between 2012 and 2017, by implementing artificial no-flow events at wastewater treatment works.
Court documents described how wastewater treatment works operate under environmental permits issued by the Environment Agency, and how treated effluent is tested through an operator self-monitoring scheme with annual discharge checks and unannounced visits.
The article also notes that if discharge flow at the time of a test is insufficient to take a sample, it is not treated as a fail, and no samples are taken, while separate listings indicate Southern Water has been charged with dozens of offences for failing to comply with environmental permit conditions between 2013 and 2017 at multiple works.