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A RECORD fine for polluting was handed down yesterday when Fanta Construction Co was told to pay $200,000 for illegally dumping mud at sea.

  It was the ninth offence in two years for the company, which pleaded guilty and did not bother with legal representation during sentencing yesterday before District Court Judge Jackson.

  The previous record was $100,000.

  Illegal dumping at sea, which can smother marine life and clog shipping lanes, has been notoriously difficult to deter because the maximum fine under the Dumping at Sea Ordinance is just $5,000.

  Cases are usually prosecuted in the magistrates' courts, but the Environmental Protection Department decided to take the Fanta case higher, to the District Court, where the judge has discretion to impose higher fines.

  Principal environmental protection officer Paul Holmes said he hoped the high fine would act as a deterrent.

  But the department was not taking chances and planned to give the ordinance more teeth by raising the maximum fine to $200,000 plus six months' jail for a first offence and $500,000 plus two years' jail for a second offence, he said.

  Fanta had ''short-dumped'' on January 4, this year, dropping its load of about 200 cubic metres of rocky material near Tai Lam Chung off Lantau Island, several kilometres short of the permitted dumping site south of Cheung Chau.

  The company was charged with failing to dump in accordance with the conditions of its licence.

 Fanta's eight previous offences concerned either short-dumping or dumping without a licence, and it received the maximum $5,000 fine in five cases.

 ''They created the impression that they were prepared to pay these few-thousand-dollar fines as normal operating expenses,'' Mr Holmes said.

  Fanta's management could not be contacted for comment yesterday, but company director Kwan Wah-hei told the court the incident was the fault of the barge master.

  Mr Holmes said the proposed higher fines were expected to be a more effective deterrent.

    The amendment will probably be introduced at the coming Legislative Council session.

  Friends of the Earth welcomed the proposed amendments and the stiff fine imposed on Fanta, but said the Government should also blacklist companies that repeatedly break environmental laws.



Firm given record $200,000 fine