WATER giant Thames Water has had its £2m fine for a 'reckless' sewage failure slashed after the firm donated to three Oxfordshire charities.

More than a hundred fish were killed after the company discharged untreated sewage from the Bruern Road Sewage Pumping Station at Milton-under-Wychwood on or before August 9 2015.

At a sentencing hearing for the incident held at Oxford Crown Court in December presiding Judge Peter Ross fined the company £2 million.

He said as he handed out his penalty that Thames Water had not learned lessons from the past, following a record fine of £20m handed to the firm in 2017 for a similar offence.

As part of his final sentencing for the water company he said that he would reduce the fine if it were to pay donations to three Oxfordshire charities.

At a hearing at the same court yesterday the same judge said that he was 'delighted' to confirm that Thames Water had paid £200,000 between the three groups and so the total fine would be reduced to £1.8m.

The charities to have benefited from the money include the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust, the Evenlode Catchment Partnership and The Wychwood Project.

At the original crown court hearing Thames Water was also ordered to pay costs to the Environment Agency of £79,991.57.

During mitigation at that hearing defence barrister Kerim Fuad QC said that the company was sorry for what it had done.

He said: “They have always and continue to take their responsibilities to the local environment extremely seriously.”

The company has an annual turnover of some £2 billion.