VACUUM cleaner tycoon James Dyson has been charged with polluting a river which runs through his £15 million estate in South Gloucestershire.
The inventor is accused of allowing silt from ornamental lakes at his Dodington Estate, near Chipping Sodbury, to be dumped in the River Frome.
The Environment Agency, which brought the case before North Avon Magistrates on Tuesday, said the action wrecked spawning grounds for brown trout.
The court was told Dyson, 57, will deny failing to dispose of controlled waste correctly in January of last year. The hearing was adjourned to April 5.
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