Ex-CEO of Southern Water among four charged with conspiracy to defraud

The ex-CEO of Southern Water faces a charge of conspiracy to defraud alongside three other former employees, it can now be reported.

It's alleged that Matthew Wright conspired with his co-defendants to defraud the Environment Agency (EA) and Ofwat between 1 January 2012 and 31 December 2017.

They're accused of manipulating the Operator Self-Monitoring (OSM) compliance testing regime which requires water firms to take samples at their wastewater treatment works and report the results to the EA.

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Failure to comply with the rules, or missing targets, can result in multimillion pound fines.

The EA had asked a judge last year to issue a summons against Mr Wright, as well as Philip Barker, Clive Massey and Mark Gregory, charging them with the offence.

However, Mr Wright sought to block the move at the High Court.

His lawyers told a subsequent hearing the EA did not have the power to issue the summons and that it should be thrown out.

That claim was dismissed earlier on Wednesday and reporting restrictions on the case were lifted.

An EA spokesperson responded: "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."

The four are accused of conspiring between 2012 and 2017 to "defraud persons performing public duties in respect of environmental and financial regulation" of Southern Water, including the EA and Ofwat, by "the implementation of artificial no-flow events at waste water treatment works".

At that time, rules under the OSM regime were that if the discharge flow during a time of testing was insufficient to take a sample, it was not regarded as a fail.

It also allowed for no samples to be taken for the rest of the testing period.

Southern Water is accused of dozens of offences of failing to comply with or contravening an environmental permit condition between 2013 and 2017 at multiple wastewater treatment works.

A spokesman for the company said: "The charges relate to a historic set of failures between 2012 and 2017. These were uncovered through an internal company investigation in 2017. As soon as they were identified, Southern Water reported them to regulators, including the Environment Agency.

"As previously announced, the company is separately facing charges of breaching environmental permits. This follows an earlier Ofwat investigation into the same issue, which resulted in a customer rebate and penalties being imposed in 2019. We apologised in full at that time and repeat that apology again today.

"Southern Water is a completely different company now than it was a decade ago. Under new leadership and backed by new shareholders, we've radically addressed our culture, governance and operations. We're serious about further change and improvement, and are investing in our largest ever programme to protect the environment."

In his ruling issuing the summons against the four men last year, District Judge Stephen Leake said: "The agency alleges, in the present case, that there was a deliberate plan by officers of the company to manipulate the OSM regime by contriving operational circumstances so that there was no flow through the relevant site at times when it was believed that the site would, or might, fail the OSM test, in order to avoid the consequences of the true OSM result being provided to the agency and Ofwat."

Mr Wright's solicitor, Stephen Shergold, said of his client: "Mr Wright denies all wrongdoing and has cooperated fully with the Environment Agency's investigation."

Environment Secretary Angela Eagle said: "The public are rightly sick of environmental pollution... and anyone found guilty of this crime will face the full force of the law.

"This government will always back tough enforcement action to protect our rivers, lakes and seas."

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