The Environment Agency has finally brought charges against the former chief executive of Southern Water. Matthew Wright, along with Philip Barker, Clive Massey and Mark Gregory, stands accused of conspiracy to defraud the agency and Ofwat by creating artificial "no-flow" events at wastewater treatment works.
This alleged scheme ran from 2012 to 2017. The point was simple enough: manipulate the Operator Self-Monitoring compliance tests so that samples would not be taken when the works were likely to fail. The potential avoided penalties came in at around £45 million. That is not pocket change for the taxpayer or the environment.
Conspiracy to defraud carries a maximum of 10 years in prison. The case will start at Medway Magistrates’ Court. Southern Water itself faces separate charges for breaching environmental permits linked to the same conduct. Three other individuals, Mark Butler, Terry Stephens and David James, will also answer charges over failure to comply with those permits.
The Operator Self-Monitoring regime began in 2009. It required water companies to sample their own sites and report the results. Strict rules existed to keep the process independent and accurate. Deliberately fiddling flows or data to dodge checks was always an offence. Yet here we are.
The agency only launched these criminal proceedings after a long, complex inquiry built on years of evidence. Yesterday the High Court confirmed the Environment Agency’s power to prosecute former employees for this sort of fraud and blocked any judicial review of the summons. An Environment Agency spokesperson said: "We can confirm that we are taking criminal proceedings against Southern Water Services Limited and a number of former employees. We take our responsibility to protect the environment very seriously and will always pursue and prosecute those alleged to have committed serious offending against the environment. We welcome this important judgment."
Self-monitoring was always an invitation to cheat
This is not some isolated lapse. It is the predictable result of a system that asked companies to police themselves on matters worth millions in fines. The public paid for cleaner rivers and beaches. Instead they got clever accounting tricks dressed up as compliance. No one should be surprised that trust in the water industry sits somewhere near rock bottom.
