Engineering firm Balfour Beatty and rail track operator Network Rail have been fined a total of £13.5m for breaches of safety regulations that caused the fatal Hatfield rail crash in October 2000.

A UK criminal court judge, Mr Justice Mackay, fined Balfour Beatty £10m and Network Rail £3.5m for breaches of safety regulations that resulted in the deaths of four people and caused more than 100 to be injured when a train derailed after hitting a broken rail.

Network Rail was found guilty last month of breaching health and safety regulations.

Balfour Beatty Rail Infrastructure Services faced similar charges and last month changed its plea to guilty. In a statement, Balfour Beatty said the company "in entering its plea of guilty, accepted inadequacies in its patrolling and inspection activities, for which it apologises."

Network Rail's chairman, Ian McAllister, said that "lessons have been learned and the rail industry has changed enormously over the past five years."

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