Three hare coursers have been ordered to pay more than £10,000 kennelling costs after their dogs were seized in South Holland.
They and a fourth man have all been handed sentences of four months’ custody, suspended for two years, and disqualified from driving for six months.
Nelson Loveridge (38), Stacey Smith (39) and Danny Rainford (33) were dealt with at Boston Magistrates’ Court last Wednesday, having pleaded guilty at a hearing on May 31 to being equipped for hare coursing.
Terry Smith (40), of Oxney Road, Peterborough, appeared simultaneously via video link from Lincoln Magistrates’ Court. Earlier in the day at a remand court, he had pleaded guilty to the same offence after failing to attend the original hearing.
All four men had previous convictions for poaching. They were caught hiding at Sinclairs Shooting Ground in Whaplode Drove, on November 11 last year.
Police had earlier been called to a suspected hare coursing incident nearby and a grey Volkswagen which was not insured, had no MOT and was not registered to anyone – made off when officers arrived.
It was later found abandoned in Flag Lane, Whaplode Drove, alongside a number of recently-killed hares, said prosecutor Kate Minihane.
“A download from Terry Smith’s phone showed a hare coursing incident on the day of arrest but it couldn’t be pinpointed where that happened,” said the prosecutor.
“Three dogs were kept by police in kennels at large expense to the public purse.”
They belonged to Loveridge, Rainford and Stacey Smith and all the dogs had been forfeited and rehomed since. A fourth dog was seized but no one accepted ownership of the animal.
Loveridge, of Maltmas Drove, Friday Bridge, Rainford, of Seadyke Bank, Murrow and Stacey Smith, of Kirkhams Lane, Elm, were each ordered to pay £3,568 to cover the kennelling costs.
They had urged the bench not to impose a driving ban, saying they were all landscape gardeners and needed to drive for work in order to pay what was owed.
Solicitor Andrew Osborne, representing Terry Smith, said: “He tells me he was effectively a passenger and spectator in this incident.
“He pleads guilty on the basis of joint enterprise. He tells me he didn’t have a dog on this particular hunt.”
All four men were also disqualified from owning dogs for five years and made the subject of Criminal Behaviour Orders lasting five years.
The vehicle, an iPhone and various dog paraphernalia were also forfeited.
The defendants were each ordered to pay £154 victim surcharge and £85 costs.
