Southern Water have been handed a record £2 million fine for sewage leaks.
Raw sewage flooded Kent beaches, closing the public spaces for nine days.
Judge Adele Williams stated the repeat offending was "wholly unacceptable". The company had previously been fined £200,000 in 2013.
Heavy rain and a series of failures at a waste water pumping station meant the beaches in the Kent area were left strewn with debris and sewage, costing over £400,000 to clean up.
The company was prosecuted by the Environment Agency (EA), which in court described the incident as "catastrophic".
Julie Foley, the EA's area manager, said: "Southern Water unlawfully discharged huge volumes of sewage on to the beach and into the sea. [This] resulted in risk to public health, polluted a considerable length of coastline, including numerous beaches, and resulted in a negative impact on Thanet, which is an area heavily reliant on the local tourism economy."
