The Environment Agency’s prosecution of a former Southern Water CEO is for “publicity” and doesn’t do enough to tackle current wrongdoing, according to a former employee who helped expose the sewage crisis.
Former Southern Water CEO Matthew Wright and his former colleagues Philip Barker, Clive Massey and Mark Gregory, are facing criminal charges over allegations they conspired to defraud the EA by faking wastewater data at a treatment works between January 2012 and December 2017.
The case marks the first time a water company CEO has personally been prosecuted by the EA and was hailed as a turning point for the watchdog, which has been heavily criticised for not doing enough to prevent firms dumping sewage into waterways.
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However, Robert Forrester, a whistleblower who left the EA earlier this year, told The i Paper he thought the case was for “good publicity” and accused his former employer of “smokes and mirrors”.
