CIDER giant Bulmers has been fined £300,000 for its part in Hereford's worst public health scare in living memory - the Legionnaires' disease outbreak of 2003.

At Hereford Crown Court, His Honour Judge McCreath said that both Bulmers and its water treatment contractors Nalco were guilty of "systematic failures of the most fundamental kind " in allowing cooling towers at Bulmers' Moorfield plant to become contaminated with Legionella.

Bulmers and Nalco admitted charges brought under the Health and Safety Act.

Nalco was also fined £300,000. Each company will pay £50,000 in costs.

A total of 28 cases of Legionnaires' disease all local to Hereford are officially linked to the outbreak. There were two deaths.