Criminal Water Bosses in Yorkshire, Warrington, Exeter, and Durham served evidence dossiers and marked for investigation

Evidence being delivered to Northumbrian Water on 7 October 2025.

Today, a group of women entered the headquarters of Northumbrian Water, United Utilities Water, Yorkshire Water, and South West Water to deliver evidence dossiers which accuse each of the CEO’s of being personally liable for damaging the public's right to clean water under the Public Nuisance Act.

This follows yesterday’s citizen’s arrests of the CEOs of Anglian Water and Wessex Water, Mark Thurston and Ruth Jefferson, and the delivery of separate evidence dossiers of environmental crimes by the CEOs of Southern Water and Severn Trent Water to their offices.

Sarah Melly is one of the women who went today to confront CEO of Yorkshire Water, Nicola Shaw. She said:

“My bills are shooting up, my pay is stagnating, and my water is polluted. These bosses are rifling our pockets while they poison our families. If I did this, they’d put me in jail. But CEOs get rewarded with bonuses. The government is failing to protect us, so we’re having to do something about it ourselves.”

At 11:00am this morning, a group of women entered the United Utilities HQ in Warrington to deliver a dossier of evidence which indicates criminal activity by CEO Louise Beardmore. Receipt of the documents was signed for by Head of Regional Engagement Chris Matthews. Beardmore was not on site at the time. Police did not attend the scene when called, so the women went on to Warrington Police Station to present the evidence dossier. They were given a crime number by Police Officers there.

At 11:50am, another group of women entered the Northumbrian Water HQ in Pity Me, Durham. Receipt of the evidence dossier was signed for by Samantha Ramsey, facilities manager. They were told that CEO Heidi Mottram was not on site. The group travelled to Durham Police Station to present the evidence.

At 2:10pm, a group of women entered the HQ of South West Water in Exeter, where they attempted to place CEO Susan Davy under Citizens Arrest, and presented the dossier of evidence against her. A compliance manager at South West Water received the documents. Police quickly arrived at the scene, where they accused the women presenting the dossier of committing a data breach due to filming their actions. Susan Davy was not arrested by the police, and did not co-operate with the Citizen's Arrest.

At 3pm, a group of women attended the HQ of Yorkshire Water in Bradford, where they demanded to meet with CEO Nicola Shaw in order to present the dossier of evidence against her. The group was stopped at the gates where they were met by a member of the company's media team, who accepted the dossier of evidence but did not allow the women to enter the premises. Police attended the scene and were also given the evidence against Nicola Shaw.

A spokesperson for Citizens Arrest Network stated today:

“Everyone knows water bosses are a public nuisance. They rake in huge bonuses, while ripping us off and filling our rivers with shit.The government talks tough, but companies just pay the fines and continue their polluting crimes. Now we have the evidence to show CEO’s are personally responsible. We won’t let them hide behind their companies and get away with it any longer, that’s why we’re holding them to account now.”

Of the 4 companies that were approached today, each have been accused of profiteering and polluting local waterways:

CEO Susan Davy of South West Water has presided over more than 2,092,604 hrs of monitored spill events in her tenure. That’s the equivalent of 239 years of sewage waste being pumped nonstop into British rivers and seas. She’s seen South West Water receive fines of £19m for repeated failures to address their poor sewage infrastructure, which they did not ultimately pay - instead being allowed to reinvest into the company. At a time when Devon was suffering a diarrhoea outbreak thanks to her company’s pollution, she took a £300,000 pay rise.¹²³

Under CEO Nicola Shaw’s watch at Yorkshire Water, in 2023 Yorkshire Water was the second worst company for sewage spills, with over 500,000 hours of spills. This later lead to the company being fined £47m for their failures and poor maintenance of their storm overflows, which appeared to be used liberally, rather than in exceptional circumstances. Yorkshire Water was also fined £865,000 this summer for illegally discharging chlorinated water resulting in the death of local wildlife. All while claiming they are “industry leading for our wastewater treatment works compliance”.⁴⁵⁶

As well as the company's failures, Shaw herself has also been under fire for failing to disclose a £1.3m bonus that was given to her via an off-shore parent company, shortly after announcing rising water bills by 41% by 2030.⁷

CEO Louise Beardmore is responsible for United Utilities, which has been under investigation for intentionally covering up the incident level of sewage spills, including spills into Lake Windermere, which is now punishable by up to 2 years in Jail. Last year saw a record number of illegal sewage spills in Lake Windermere, with United Utilities involved in 7 new criminal investigations this year. Beardmore was paid a total of £1.4m in 2024, with profits for the company doubling on the previous year. ⁸⁹¹⁰

CEO Heidi Mottram of Northumbrian Water has overseen more than 1,032,941 hours of monitored spill events just since 2020 - this equates to 118 years of sewage waste being pumped nonstop into public waterways. At the same time this has been happening, Mottram has been earning £93,000 a year in her second job with energy firm Centrica, where she decides on the pay packages of her fellow executives. Following Northumbrian Water discharging sewage into beauty spot Saltburn Beach, she was awarded a 65% bonus increase - netting £215,000 p/a in bonus pay.¹¹¹²

Thames Water were also approached in March of this year in a similar manner, where a member of the public approached their headquarters and called the police in order to arrest the CEO, Chris Weston and their CFO, Alastair Cochran. The group of women also Citizen’s Arrested several oil and gas executives for damage caused to the environment.

There is a long and growing list of people in civil society, calling for accountability and the arrest of CEO’s of Water Companies for the damage they are doing to British water. These include Steve Reed of the Environmental Agency, Aaron Bastani of Novara Media, Nick Ferrari of LBC and James Wallace of River Action. It’s time that we see action.

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