Safapac penalties total £92,000

Chemical and packaging company Safapac has been ordered to pay more than £90,000 in penalties after sentencing was passed to the Crown Court.

Safapac pleaded guilty at a magistrates’ court in February to polluting the River Nene in June 2012, but magistrates sent the case to the crown court because they felt that their sentencing powers, which are limited to fines of £20,000 per offence, were insufficient.

The firm has now been fined £50,000 and ordered to pay costs of £42,000 by Peterborough Crown Court.

Thousands of fish died when 5,000 litres of agricultural chemicals, including an insecticide and a fungicide, leaked into the river from the firm’s site in Orton Southgate.

Drainage plans held by Safapac for the site and initially shown to officers from the Environment Agency were wrong, as they showed a drain leading to a foul sewer when, in fact, it was a surface water drain that discharged into the river.