Lakenheath
farming business N&M Sizer lied about how much water it abstracted,
fearing it would lose its licence or have its abstraction limits
reduced.
In doing so, the company falsely stated that it had
extracted more water than it was allowed to under the licence which
resulted in an investigation by the Environment Agency.
The
company had actually taken very little of the allowance as its crops at
the time did not need spray irrigation, Ipswich Magistates’ Court heard
today (30 May).
It fined the company £3,000 for the deception and ordered it to pay £2,531 costs.
Mrs
Megan Selves, prosecuting for the Environment Agency, told the court
the company had been worried that as it had not taken much water it
would lose the right the following year to take what the licence
allowed.
However, she said that any reduction in future
abstraction or any revocation of licence would not be done without
looking at about 10 years of records and without discussion with the
licence holder.
Any assessment would only be carried out when the
licence came up for renewal or if there was evidence that the licence is
causing environmental damage. The licence for N&M Sizer Ltd expires
on 31 March 2027.
Mrs Selves said that water meters at the
company’s site, Bedford Fen in Sedgefen, had been re-calibrated to
corroborate the figures submitted to the Environment Agency in a
‘determined effort to mislead’.
She said the company’s actions had
been deliberate and a ‘flagrant disregard for the law’ and although
there had been no environmental impact, the company had falsified its
figures giving a false impression of how much water had been taken from
the environment.
Mrs Selves said the company had shown remorse and co-operated with the investigation.
N&M Sizer Ltd pleaded guilty to:
Charge:
On or before 30 November 2015 you furnished information to the
Environment Agency pursuant to section 201 of the Water Resources Act
1991, namely the water abstraction return for 2014 to 2015 for licence
6/33/39/*S/0496/R01 for abstraction points A, C, D, E and F, and in the
said information made a statement which you knew to be false or
misleading in a material particular, namely that you had abstracted
153,360 cubic metres of water.
Contrary to section 206(1) and (5) of the Water Resources Act 199