South West Water claims stake in woman's home after she stopped paying bills in protest

• Watch Bob Cruwys' report

A campaigner who has not paid her water bill in five years has accused South West Water of using scare tactics to get her to pay - after the firm claimed a stake in her home.

Imogen May, from Crediton in Devon, believes South West Water is not doing enough to clean up rivers and prevent sewage spills.

As a form of protest, she has now withheld her payments for five years and owes around £3,000.

"I feel really sad," she told ITV News West Country. "I am passionate about the natural world. I swim in the rivers, I swim in the sea, my go-to whenever I can is spend time near water.

"It actually hurts me. It makes me feel incredibly sad. I've got two wonderful daughters and I am doing this to secure a future for them. They ought not to be fighting when they reach my age and I really hope that they are not."

South West Water has now taken legal action to claim a stake in Imogen's house via the Land Registry. This means that, when the house is sold, the company can take what it is owed.

Imogen described this action as "typical, standard behaviour" of "an arrogant corporation in complete denial of what they are doing to our ecosystems and communities".

She added: "They can have their money, with goodwill, when they start spending it on what it is designed to be spent on, as in clean water supplies for all of us and clean riverways, but they are not.

"They have all of the science, all of the tech and resources at their fingertips to ensure that we have clean waterways and they are letting us down.

"Money is what they understand and it is the only way that we can get through to them."

Figures from the Environment Agency show South West Water discharged sewage into rivers and seas 58,249 times last year - up by more than 50% on 2022.

South West Water says it does not comment on individual customer cases.

However, a spokesperson said: "We are serious about tackling storm overflows and change of this scale takes time, ambition, and increased investment – and that is why we are investing £850million in our region over two years."