South West Water is being taken to court over a parasite that infected the water supply in parts of Devon last summer and left dozens sick.

More than 140 people were confirmed to have the diarrhoea-type disease, which also causes stomach pains and vomiting, typically lasting for about two weeks. Four people were hospitalised at the time.

About 16,000 households and businesses in the Brixham area were told by the water company not to use their tap water for drinking without boiling it first.

A water tank at Hillhead reservoir had been found to contain the parasite, the company said at the time. The contamination caused mass disruption in the area, with holidaymakers cancelling their guesthouse bookings and a school having to shut.

The Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) said the summons had been issued to the company for prosecution for potential offences under section 70(1) of the Water Industry Act 1991. This makes it a criminal offence for a water company to supply water that is unfit for human consumption.

Marcus Rink, the chief inspector of the DWI, said: “The Brixham incident was serious with significant impact on the public and the wider community. Accordingly, I consider it appropriate to pass the matter to the court to consider the evidence in the public interest.”

Caroline Voaden, the Liberal Democrat MP for South Devon, applauded the DWI’s decision, saying: “I am pleased to hear that the Drinking Water Inspectorate has decided to take South West Water to court over the cryptosporidium outbreak in Brixham last year. It’s important we find out exactly what South West Water knew, and when, and why they told people the water was safe to drink when it wasn’t.

“Many of my constituents still don’t trust the drinking water and are paying for bottled water more than a year on from the outbreak. This incident affected the whole community, damaged businesses, hurt the local economy and, most importantly, made many people severely ill. It’s taken a long time to get to this point, but finally, we are seeing South West Water brought to account.”

A spokesperson for South West Water said: “We will reflect on this summons. South West Water has cooperated fully with the Drinking Water Inspectorate from the outset of this incident to help in its investigations.

“We take this incident extremely seriously, and we will continue to engage fully in response to these legal proceedings. In the meantime, our focus remains on delivering clean safe drinking water to our 2 million customers across Cornwall, Devon and the Isles of Scilly.”

The text arrives out of the blue stating you have received a penalty charge notice (PCN) and includes a link to click and pay.

But don’t click through. It is a parking scam that is gaining traction, prompting councils across the country to warn motorists.

Last week, Cheshire West and Chester Council alerted residents to the scam texts, some of which threaten the risk of having your licence suspended, court action or credit score damage if you don’t pay up.

Maria Byrne, the council’s director of environment and communities, said: “Our parking team has recently been made aware of these scams. They may appear urgent or official, but they are not and include a link to a fake payment page.”

Parking tickets can be confusing as the two main types are both abbreviated to PCN. A “penalty charge notice” is usually issued by a council and is for a parking infringement on public land such as a high street or council car park.

Meanwhile, a private parking company or landowner will give you a “parking charge notice”. You might get one, for example, if you parked for too long in a supermarket car park.

The rise in app- and phone-based parking payments – as well as the record numbers of tickets being issued – has opened a new frontier for fraudsters with scams taking multiple forms. These range from fake texts to quishing scams – so called because they are phishing attacks that start with a QR code.

The BBC also recently reported that criminals are targeting people paying for parking at machines with hidden skimming devices attached to the contactless payment reader.

The messages appear to be phishing texts, so even if you have not used a QR code or parking machine, you could still receive one.

What the scam looks like

The texts tend to be written in an official way, mentioning the “issuing authority” and “notice number”. The payment link may ask for your card details and car registration.

Some mention the risk of legal proceedings if you don’t pay. They say this could lead to a county court judgment, the threat being it would have a negative impact on your credit rating.

In common with other councils who have put out statements warning residents, Cheshire West and Chester Council says it would never send out PCNs for a parking contravention by text. It says genuine PCNs are issued as physical tickets attached to your vehicle windscreen or sent by post.

There have also been reports of scam texts being sent to drivers that purport to be from the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA). The DVSA does not deal with parking fines.

What to do

For starters always check the sender: official messages from a parking provider or local authority will come from verified sources.

Look closely at the link you have been sent. Scam giveaways include weird URLs and bad spelling. Check that the URL includes HTTPS, rather than HTTP, before handing over details.

Genuine parking notices will always include your vehicle registration, the time of the offence and the location of the infringement. If it doesn’t have these three things then it is a scam.

If you receive a text that looks suspicious, do not click on any links or input any personal or financial information. The British Parking Association (BPA) advises that you log into the parking app account if you have one, or contact the local authority directly to verify the claim.

If you have clicked on a suspicious link, restart you device as a lot of the links allow a scammer to gain remote access to it. If you restart your phone it will kill the connection.

If you’ve filled in your bank details on the link make sure you change your account password. If you handed over money you should inform your bank’s fraud department about the message, the link and what information you gave.

It is also worth forwarding the text to 7726 which is a free spam-reporting service. Then delete it.

The BPA adds: “Real PCNs are on physical paper and always include instructions on how to pay or appeal it!”

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