A Cleaning company with a multi-million pound annual turnover has admitted pouring a lethal chemical into a brook.
Johnsons Apparel Master admitted allowing the potentially deadly chemical percholoroethylene to escape into Prittle Brook in Leigh.
The firm based in London Road, Hadleigh, stored the chemical in an outdoor tank, also used as an overflow tank for rain water.
The tank had two holes at the back of it and chemicals, meant to be disposed of by specialists, were flowing from the tank into an open sewer meant for rain water only.
The chemicals poured into Prittle Brook, which runs from Belfairs Park Golf Course, in Leigh, through Southend and out towards Rochford. The firm makes its money by cleaning work clothes on an industrial scale.
Yesterday, Southend magistrates fined the company £12,000 and ordered it to pay the entire costs of the case brought by the Environment Agency of £2,617.28.
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