Cider-maker HP Bulmer and its water treatment contractor have been each fined £300,000 for health and safety breaches which led to a fatal outbreak of Legionnaires' disease.
Judge Alistair McCreath also ordered the Hereford-based drinks firm and Nalco Limited to pay more than £50,000 each in prosecution costs after hearing two people died and more than 20 other members of the public fell ill in the city in 2003.
Passing sentence at Hereford Crown Court, Judge McCreath said the failure to clean two cooling towers adequately at Bulmer's mill in Plough Lane, Hereford, in September 2003 was "almost beyond belief".
Bulmer and Nalco, which is based in Northwich, Cheshire, both pleaded guilty last year to breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act in connection with the outbreak.
The sentencing hearing was told that legionella bacteria were found in two cooling towers at Bulmer's plant following the deaths of an elderly man and a 56-year-old woman in the winter of 2003.
Judge McCreath criticised both Bulmer and Nalco for their roles in the "woefully inadequate" cleaning of the towers in September 2003.
He added the errors had arisen due to oversights and the cutting of corners.
Earlier, prosecutor Mark Harris said that the outbreak was traced to cooling tower number nine at the Plough Lane site.
The court heard that 28 cases of Legionnaires' disease were reported in October, November and December of 2003, affecting victims aged between 36 and 91.
In a statement released after the hearing, a spokesman for HP Bulmer said it took its role in the community very seriously and had worked closely with the Health and Safety Executive to trace and eliminate the source of the outbreak.
