Dobbies says it is "disappointed" that a court has rejected its appeal over a £75,000 fine imposed on it earlier this year for polluting a stream with sewage.
The garden centre retailer had complained that the record fine was "wholly excessive". However, a judge and two magistrates at Carlisle Crown Court considered that the penalty had been, if anything, lenient given the slackness of systems at the garden centre which could have prevented such a breach of environmental laws.

Dobbies told diyweek.net that it now has "rigorous new processes in place to ensure this does not happen again".

The problem emerged in 2012 after a foul smell was detected coming from a Cumbrian stream. An investigation by the Environment Agency traced the pollution to a pipe pumping secondary-treated sewage into the watercourse from Dobbies' Orton Grange garden centre near Carlisle.

The company had had permission to do this, but the investigator found that the sewage content in the water was up to 12 times the limit allowed and that the pollution had been occurring for some time.

Staff at the garden centre did not know the permit required them to check the outlet weekly, and despite the Environment Agency speaking to the garden centre's deputy store manager, head office did not get to hear about the problem for some time.

The Tesco-owned company admitted four breaches of environmental legislation, and was ordered to pay £75,000 plus £4,000 in costs back in March.

Appealing against the fine, Dobbies pointed out that as soon as head office did become aware of the issue it had mounted a "swift and full response". But the judge noted that there had not been a copy of the environmental permit at the garden centre, weekly checks on discharges had not been made and there had been "no sense of urgency" following the discovery of the problem. The judge also took Dobbies' £100m turnover into account when considering the fine.

He said: "While we fully accept and take into account that the appellants have no previous convictions, pleaded guilty at the first opportunity and co-operated with the investigation, and indeed took remedial measures at a cost of £15,000, it does seem to us that because of those aggravating features to which I have referred the overall penalty had to be substantial to mark what was a serious breach of environmental regulations."

Upholding the fine, he added: "The view of all of us is that arguably that was on the lenient side."

Commenting on the case, Dobbies spokesperson told diyweek.net: "We are disappointed with the outcome of our appeal hearing, concerning the unprecedented level of fine served upon us.

"We have taken this matter extremely seriously and have rigorous new processes in place to ensure this does not happen again."