A private fishing lake owner has been fined £3,300 for illegally taking water from a stream in an area of ‘potential drought’ in Lincolnshire. He was also ordered to pay full costs of  £3,873.

Spalding Magistrates’ Court heard that Michael Yould abstracted an estimated 806 cubic metres of water from Blue Gowt Drain over six days in May last year, just weeks before the Secretary of State declared the area in drought. This equated to just under a third of an Olympic sized swimming pool.

Mrs Claire Corfield, prosecuting for the Environment Agency, said Yould was seen pumping water from the drain onto the land. “It appeared to the internal drainage board member of staff who witnessed it that the water was being used to water trees and top up the lake”, she said.

Yould, who owns Clay Lakes at Pode Hole, said he had taken water only for the trees and shrubs. He claimed it had not drained to the lake as it was bunded. He told investigating offices he thought water shortages in the area affected reservoirs and not dykes.

Environment Agency Officer Rachel Parker said illegal water abstraction hampered the Agency’s ability to manage water resources.

“At a time when there had been unusually low rainfall it was essential that water in the area was managed sensibly and Mr Yould would not have been allowed a licence at that time even if he had applied for one."

Yould pleaded guilty to abstracting water from a source of supply without an abstraction licence under the Water Resources Act 1991.

Company fined for illegal water extraction to fill lake

In another prosecution brought by the Agency last week Heart of England Promotions Limited was found guilty at Nuneaton Magistrates’ Court to abstracting inland freshwater without a valid abstraction licence at the Heart of England Conference and Events Centre, Coventry. The company was fined for illegally abstracting water to fill an inland lake. Director Stephen Timothy Hammon and the company and the were both fined £1500, and ordered to pay £1000 each in costs, along with a £15 victim surcharge.

In May 2009, the Environment Agency received reports that a borehole had been drilled at the site and a pump had been installed to abstract water before authorisation had been obtained.  When they visited the site, officers found that a generator was running and water was being drawn from the borehole.

By law, if anyone wants to remove or abstract water from a surface source (e.g. river, stream or canal) or from an underground source and takes more than 20 cubic metres a day, they need an abstraction licence from the Agency.

  Environment Agency officers met with Mr Hammon and confirmed he needed to fit an abstraction meter to the pump to measure how much water he was taking, and also that only 20 cubic metres of water could be taken per day without an abstraction licence.  Mr Hammon agreed to comply with this.  However, during subsequent visits to the site Environment Agency officers noted from meter readings that more than 20 cubic meters per day had been abstracted during the period 14 May 2009 and 1 June 2009.

Both Heart of England Promotions Limited and Mr Hammon were invited for interview on 3 occasions. Both of them declined to attend on all occasions.

In mitigation, the court was told that the amount of water abstracted was only just over the allocated limit.