A haulage firm has been fined for polluting a Norfolk watercourse

Woody’s Haulage, pleaded guilty to breaching the Water Resources Act 1991 at a hearing earlier this month and was sentenced to pay a fine of £7,000 with £13,527 costs by the Swaffham Magistrates Court for causing pollution of a stream and River Thet.

At an earlier hearing, the firm was fined £3,500 for its failure to comply with the Control Of Pollution (Oil Storage) Regulations.

Inspectors from the Environment Agency traced back water pollution in November 2006 to Woody’s Haulage, which works in demolition, site clearance and on contaminated land and environmental services.

Following the visit to the site, during which violations of the Oil Storage Regulations were discovered, the firm was told to clean up the polluted water course.

However, prosecutor Mr Richard Branwell said that the firm was slow to clean up the watercourse, which is used for abstraction for agriculture.

Environmental crime team leader Phil Henderson said: "This incident caused a significant pollution of a main river used widely for irrigation and fishing amongst other things. It is disappointing that Woody’s Haulage had allowed an incident such as this to happen and failed to prevent pollution of the environment."