A SPECIALIST drain clearance firm has been ordered to pay more than £2,000 in fines and costs after admitting taking water without consent from a mains pipe on Westpark business park, Chelston, Wellington.

A1 Wokingham West Waste Ltd pleaded guilty by letter to a charge of using without permission a pipe attached to a Wessex Water mains on September 18 last year.

A second charge of unlawfully attaching the pipe to the mains supply on the same day was withdrawn.

The case against the company, based in Wokingham, Berkshire, was heard in Taunton Magistrates Court on Tuesday (April 21).

Magistrates fined the firm £500 and ordered it to pay £200 to a victim services fund and prosecution costs of £1,435.10, making a total of £2,135.10.