THAMES Water has been fined more than £11,000 for twice polluting a brook in Abingdon with raw sewage.

Britain’s largest water company has been ordered to pay £11,515 after allowing the sewage to enter Sandford Brook, which flows north of Abingdon and joins the River Ock near Marcham.

Thames Water Utilities Limited pleaded guilty before Oxford magistrates to causing sewage sludge to enter Sandford Brook from a main at Gozzards Ford on or before February 6 last year and between March 12 and March 15 last year.

The company was fined £8,000 for the offences which were contrary to the Environmental Permitting Regulations. They also paid £3,500 prosecution costs, and a £15 victim surcharge. in the case heard on Friday.

Thames Water spokesman Simon Evans said: “We deeply regret both of these incidents.

“The first was caused by rags and sticks caught on a displaced rubber seal, which blocked a sewer resulting in sewage spilling into the brook, and the second incident was caused by the sewer collapsing when we tried to cut out the rubber seal.

“Since then we have replaced an 80-metre section of the pipe to significantly reduce the chances of this happening again.”