Former Southern Water chief executive Matthew Wright is among four ex-employees charged with conspiracy to defraud the Environment Agency and Ofwat, following one of the largest environmental criminal investigations ever undertaken by the regulator.
Matthew Wright, the former chief executive of Southern Water, has been charged with conspiracy to defraud alongside three other former employees of the company. The Environment Agency alleges that Wright conspired with his co-defendants to defraud the agency and Ofwat between 1 January 2012 and 31 December 2017, by manipulating the Operator Self-Monitoring compliance testing regime, which requires water companies to sample their wastewater treatment works and report the results to regulators. Southern Water Services Ltd has also been charged with multiple environmental offences arising from the same investigation.
Who has been charged
Alongside Wright, the other former Southern Water employees charged are Dr Nick Mills, Lawrence Gosden and Graham Potter. The Environment Agency alleges the conspiracy involved falsifying or manipulating wastewater sampling results in order to make the company’s regulatory compliance appear better than it actually was. The allegations relate to wastewater treatment works across southern England, where operator self-monitoring data was submitted to regulators over a number of years.
Scale of the investigation
The Environment Agency has described the case as one of the largest and most complex criminal environmental investigations it has ever undertaken. The charges follow a lengthy inquiry that involved examining millions of operational records, laboratory results and internal company documents.
In a statement, 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.”
What happens next
All four former employees are due to appear before Westminster Magistrates’ Court for their first hearing. None of the defendants has yet entered a plea, and the allegations will now be tested through the courts.
The criminal proceedings are separate from previous civil and regulatory action already taken against Southern Water, which has included record financial penalties over sewage pollution and operational failures at its wastewater treatment works.
