Firm fined £20k over gas scare panic

A chemicals company that caused widespread panic after a gas-like stench escaped from its plant in the Black Country has been ordered to pay £20,000 by a court.

More than 110 people called the National Grid emergency line whenthe smell was accidentally released at the Robinson Brothers plant in West Bromwich.

Reports came from up to eight miles away after the noxious smell polluted the atmosphere. The company admitted failing to comply with an Environment Agency permit when it appeared at West Bromwich Magistrates Court.

Mr Barry Berlin, prosecuting, said the odorant was produced by the Phoenix Street company to give household gas the distinctive smell which allows people to identify it. But the chemical was allowed to escape while tankers were being cleaned on August 5 2008.

Mr Berlin said: "Technical problems occurred. Back-up systems, including the standby burner, failed to operate successfully and odorous emissions were released from the main chimney for between 10 and 30 minutes, causing serious odour problems in the neighbourhood."

Multiple reports from members of the public and businesses about a smell of gas - 111 in total - were received by National Grid and traced to the Robinson Brothers site.

Investigations found the plume reached as far as Brownhills in Walsall, some eight miles away.

Environment Agency spokesman Ian Kelcy said: "This incident caused widespread nuisance and alarm to many people and should have been prevented."

The firm, which was founded in 1869 and is one of the UK's biggest manufacturers of organic chemicals, said measures had now been put in place to ensure the incident was never repeated.

Magistrates fined the company £10,000 and also ordered it to pay £9,584.09 costs.

Roy Clifford, safety, health and environment manager with Robinson Brothers, said today: "We have completely changed our systems since this happened and are absolutely confident it won't happen again."