“HORRIFIED” residents have spoken out after Thames Water was yesterday fined a record £20.3 million for polluting the River Thames with 1.4 billion litres of raw sewage.

The company allowed huge amounts of untreated effluent to enter the waterway in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire in 2013 and 2014, leaving people and animals ill, and killing thousands of fish.

The pollution did not make its way to Southend.

Simon Mudd, 53, chairman of the Essex Kitesurfers’ Club can spend up to 20 hours a week in the water during the summer.

He said: “I’m horrified that they let this happen. What’s worrying is that the people who use the water were not informed about it.

“I’m hoping it never made its way down to Southend, the water here is very good quality.

“I’m glad they’ve been punished, but we need to ask who this fine is really going to hit in the long term. Will it hit customers?”

Judge Francis Sheridan handed down a fine of £20,361,140 - the largest penalty for a water utility for an environmental disaster - at a sentencing hearing at Aylesbury Crown Court.

Handing down the fine, which is ten times higher than the previous record penalty paid by Southern Water, Judge Sheridan said: “This is a shocking and disgraceful state of affairs.”

He added: “It should not be cheaper to offend than to take appropriate precautions.”

Thames Water has 21 days to pay.

The firm admitted 13 breaches of environmental laws over discharges from sewage treatment works in Aylesbury, Didcot, Henley and Little Marlow, and a pumping station at Littlemore.

It also pleaded guilty to a further charge on March 17 over a lesser discharge from an unmanned sewage treatment plant at Arborfield in Berkshire in September 2013.

The judge also took into account seven further incidents at sewage sites on the Thames in 2014.

Fisherman Paul Gilson, 63, from Underwood Gardens, who fishes on the Thames, said: “I’m pleased they have been punished, but you need to ask whether a financial penalty is enough. Someone would have known what was happening at Thames Water.

“If the sewage did hit Southend, it wouldn’t have mad much of a physical impact, considering how much it would have been diluted.

“But the mental impact could be huge. People will think ‘I don’t want to buy my fish from the Thames because it’s polluted.’ “ Richard Aylard, Thames Water, said outside the court: “We have failed in our responsibility to the environment and that hurts both personally and professionally because we do care.