A CAPEL-based farming company has been fined £8,000 for a pollution incident which led to the deaths of more than 500 fish.

A CAPEL-based farming company has been fined £8,000 for a pollution incident which led to the deaths of more than 500 fish.

Ammonia fertilizer ended up in a ditch that runs into the River Dove, near Eye.

It killed fish in a lake at Wickham Hall, Wickham Skeith when ammonia levels became very high.

APT Farming, of Capel St Mary, was fined £8,000 by magistrates at Bury St Edmunds and ordered to pay £3,300 costs after it admitted causing the pollution on February 28.

The company was also ordered to pay £2,600 compensation to the owners of Wickham Hall for the restocking of the lake.

Magistrates heard that within days of the pollution more than 500 fish were dead in the lake. Some of those were carp measuring between 10cm and 60cm.

Anne-Lise McDonald, prosecuting, said that Environment Agency officers traced the pollution from the lake to Elm Farm where they saw obvious signs of spillage from a large open top tank containing a deep brown liquid.

A spokeswoman for APT Farming said there was no-one available to comment.