A street cleaning company kept stealing water despite being fined almost £20,000, Thames Water has said.

Road sweeping company Kilgannon Street Care has been hit with fines and costs of £19,600 for repeatedly connecting to unauthorised and unlicensed standpipes.

Thames Water says the practice can ‘compromise’ the cleanliness of the water supply. It says that ‘despite having spoken with Thames Water since their first offence’ Kilgannon continued to connect to the water supply illegally.

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The water company prosecuted Kilgannon for 26 offences since 2017, most recently at Reading Magistrates' Court on August 30 this year. That means Kilgannon has been fined an average of £753 for each offence, or £2,800 a year.

In contrast, the maximum fine that can be levied for each offence is £1,000 while the cost of hiring a standpipe is £1,500 a year.

The prosecutions come after another street cleaning company, Go Plant, also failed to stop stealing water despite multiple prosecutions.

Thames Water announced in May this year that Go Plant had been fined £52,000 over five years for unauthorised standpipe connections.

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This was despite two meetings with Thames Water aimed at stopping the practice in 2022 and 2023.

Thames Water says it has a dedicated team of investigators who seek out illegal standpipe connections. It says that while it explains the consequences of repeat offending, companies must be responsible for their own actions.

Kilgannon did not respond to a request for comment.