LacPatrick Dairies in Northern Ireland has been fined over £100,000 by a court for environmental breaches, including milk spillages to a river.

LacPatrick Dairies (NI) Ltd, of 47 Berryhill Road, Artigarvan, Strabane, in Co. Tyrone, was made the subject of a total of £115,000 in fines in relation to three separate cases heard at Strabane Magistrates Court yesterday (Thursday, August 13).

Under Northern Ireland's Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations, the business, which is owned by Lakeland Dairies, was made the subject of a total of £70,000 in fines for seven offences relating to failure to comply with conditions within their permit.

LacPatrick was also made the subject of a total of £45,000 in fines under the Water (Northern Ireland) Order 1999 for nine offences relating to discharging polluting material into the Glenmornan River.

On various dates between February 17, 2025 and April 18, 2025, officers from the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) inspected the LacPatrick Dairies site in Strabane and observed "multiple breaches" of its permit.

Breaches

According to the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA), the breaches observed were in relation to two separate incidents and four offences.

These included a damaged pipe which resulted in contaminated discharge entering the surface water drainage system, and also a "further significant milk spillage" resulting in milk entering the river via the surface water drainage system.

DAERA said these two incidents resulted in several breaches of environmental regulations, including "failure to suspend operations of the plant where an adverse environmental impact was ongoing".

LacPatrick Dairies (NI) Ltd was found to have breached their permit during this time and were fined £10,000 for each of these four offences.

DAERA also alleged that, in relation to these above incidents, LacPatrick Dairies also discharged a polluting matter so that it entered a waterway, resulting in breaches of other environmental rules.

The company was fined a total of £5,000 for each of these three offences.

On a further occasion on dates between May 30, 2025 and July 4, 2025, officers from NIEA observed further breaches of the company’s permit.

The breaches identified were in relation to the operation of the effluent treatment plant where "the operator persistently breached the permitted discharge limits".

LacPatrick Dairies (NI) Ltd was found to have breached its permit during this time and were fined £10,000 for this offence.

It was also alleged that LacPatrick Dairies discharged a polluting matter so that it entered the Glenmornan River, resulting in further breaches on four occasions between June 11, 2025 and July 4, 2025.

LacPatrick Dairies (NI) Ltd was fined £5,000 for each of these four offences.

According to DAERA, further breaches of the company’s permit occurred between the dates of the July 31, 2025 and September 8, where officers from NIEA inspected the site and "observed multiple breaches of the permit".

LacPatrick Dairies was found to have breached the permit between July 31, 2025 and August 16, 2025, and also between August 17 and September 8. The company were fined £10,000 for each of these two offences.

It was further alleged that LacPatrick Dairies (NI) Ltd discharged a polluting matter so that it entered the Glenmornan River on July 31, 2025 and on September 8, 2025. The business was fined £5,000 for each of these two offences.

In total, LacPatrick Dairies (NI) Ltd pleaded guilty to seven charges of failure to comply with environmental regulations.