A GASTRO-PUB co-owned by celebrity chef Marco Pierre White has been fined £30,000 after admitting polluting a stream with sewage.

Marco Pierre White’s Yew Tree Inn, in Highclere, had previously pleaded guilty to five counts of polluting a water course between November 27, 2007 and January 15, 2009.

Andrew Parton, of Old School Cottages, Highclere, a proprietor and shareholder in the restaurant, had also pleaded guilty to five similar charges during the same period, plus a sixth charge of breaching an improvement notice issued on November 28, 2008.

The Environment Agency brought all charges against the two defendants after conducting tests on the stream near the restaurant. The restaurant has a licence to treat and release sewage into the stream.

Rooma Horeesorun, prosecuting, told Basingstoke Magistrates Court that two Highclere landowners, Geoffery Crocker and Pamela Brown, had complained to the Environment Agency that they could smell sewage from the stream.

James Pretsell, defending both the restaurant and Mr Parton, said the business had already spent nearly £80,000 in trying to fix their sewage treatment tank.

But presiding magistrate Stephen Bibby said the charges related to a “serious and continuing” environmental problem and that substantial fines were appropriate.

He fined the restaurant £6,000 for each charge, totalling £30,000. He also ordered the restaurant to pay £7,785 in legal costs, £200 each in compensation to Mr Crocker and Mrs Brown, and a £15 victim surcharge.

Mr Bibby also ordered Mr Parton to pay £600 for the five similar charges, plus £100 for the breach of the improvement notice, totalling £3,100. Mr Parton also had to pay £865 in legal costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

For more on this story, see The Gazette on Thursday.