A clinical waste disposal company was fined £100,000 today for offences including leaving human waste to rot in lorries.

Eurocare Environmental Services was fined a total of £35,000 by a judge at Chester Crown Court for illegally storing clinical waste at sites in Newcastle upon Tyne and Birmingham.

It was fined £40,000 for polluting the River Dee with bodily fluids and a total of £25,000 for other offences. It was also ordered to pay costs of £114,818.

The firm was accused of leaving human blood and tissues to rot in trailers around the country.

The company - which disposes of more than 45,000 tonnes of clinical waste each year - pleaded guilty in October last year to 10 charges of contravening the Environment Protection Act 1990.

Eurocare Environmental Services - the largest ''non-burn'' disposal operator in Europe - counts numerous NHS trusts and private healthcare organisations among its clients.

The charges relate to the storage and disposal of controlled, clinical waste at locations in Birmingham, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Wrexham.

Others concern an incident when ''poisonous, noxious and polluting matter'' flowed into a tributary of the River Dee, in north Wales.

The company has also admitted the unauthorised dumping of clinical waste on land near Chester as well as fraudulently obtaining licences to dispose of waste.