Andrew Marshall leads in landmark Environmental Agency prosecution

The Divisional Court today ( 22nd July, 2026) confirmed the Environment Agency’s power to charge all offences, touching upon the Agency’s functions, including conspiracy to defraud. Andrew Marshall led in this significant case for the Agency, where there was an attempt in Judicial Review to confine the Agency’s powers to prosecute.

Andrew also leads in the underlying case, which is a landmark case in which the former Southern Water Chief Executive, Matthew Wright, and three others have been charged with conspiracy to defraud the Environmental Agency (EA). The charge marks the first time an officer of a water company has faced criminal proceedings in relation to environmental crime, involving an alleged conspiracy between 2012 and 2017 to manipulate water quality testing data at Southern Water’s failing waste treatment works and avoid regulatory penalties and investigation.

Andrew Marshall was instructed by the EA to lead the prosecution, which was initiated in 2024.

Mr Wright challenged the lawfulness of the criminal proceedings in the High Court; however, his application was dismissed by the court today, allowing the criminal proceedings to continue.

Andrew led Victoria Ailes of 6 KBW College Hill and Joe Millington of St Philip’s Chambers.

Margate and Broadstairs

Separately, Andrew Marshall concluded a major prosecution for the EA last week which resulted in a £7.1 million fine against Southern Water for unlawful sewage discharges along the Margate and Broadstairs coastline.

Southern Water pleaded guilty to 13 offences covering the period 2019–2021, which included repeated failures to maintain critical pumping equipment, delays in reporting pollution incidents to regulators and allowing untreated sewage to enter coastal waters- some at the height of summer.

2021: Operation Garden

In 2021, Andrew also led the Agency’s largest ever prosecution when Southern Water received a record £90 million fine for nearly 7,000 illegal sewage discharges.

Andrew Marshall is instructed in the most significant prosecutions and investigations brought by the Environment Agency. His practice is, and always has, encompassed the most complex, high-profile cases whether environmental offences, corporate liability, serious health and safety breaches and major incidents of significant public interest. Read more here

News stories:

https://news.sky.com/story/ex-ceo-of-southern-water-among-four-charged-with-conspiracy-to-defraud-13565944

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c36d0njy7jjo

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jul/17/southern-water-fined-7m-dumping-sewage-kent-coast

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/jul/22/former-southern-water-employees-trial-alleged-cover-up-wastewater-testing

https://www.independent.co.uk/bulletin/news/matthew-wright-southern-water-charged-water-tests-b3019503.html

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8jn7l3ye38o

https://www.ft.com/content/5d12c0eb-1c98-4b60-a5da-1cd855bed137?syn-25a6b1a6=1

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/07/22/southern-water-executives-face-criminal-charges-over-sewage/

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/environment/article/former-southern-water-boss-charged-over-plan-to-fix-water-quality-tests-h9km2mpkf

https://inews.co.uk/news/southern-water-bosses-first-face-criminal-charges-sewage-leaks-4662564