‘Honest error’ costs farmer £25,000 in subsidy cheque

A livestock farmer has been fined £25,000 by the Rural Payments Agency for making a one-digit error on his Single Farm Payment application form.

David Robinson was stripped of more than 10% of his subsidy cheque after a “simple, honest mistake” meant he put the wrong date on his 2006 application.

Mr Robinson, who farms a 3000-acre organic suckler beef and arable unit in Lewis, East Sussex, said he accidentally put the date of 02/02/06 on his form. Instead the date should have read 02/03/06.

Despite appealing against the fine, the RPA said it was legitimate, leaving Mr Robinson with a £25,000 deduction on his subsidy.

“It’s a massive fine for what was a slip of the pen,” said Mr Robinson.

“I have to fill out the forms in the middle of calving, I’m nearly 70 and I get very tired so it’s not ridiculous to think I might have made a simple human error.

“I have 400 fields and to make a mistake on one date which makes no difference to the application seems ridiculous.”

Mr Robinson said the RPA now viewed his case as “a closed book” and he had no idea how he was going to attempt to claim the money back.

“We approached the Ombudsman to look into it, but we received a letter last month saying it won’t consider the case because a similar case in Northern Ireland wasn’t successful,” he said.

“For most things it’s fair cop if you get caught breaking rules, but I feel I have just been taken to the cleaners.”

Mr Robinson said the fine was the difference between profit and loss for his business and it had made a big impact on the farm.

“If we have altered the details to try to claim extra I could see the problem, but I just wanted to claim what was rightfully mine,” he added. “It’s a nonsense and disproportionate.”

An RPA spokeswoman said comments on individual cases could not be made. Fine amounts were set by the European Union, not the agency, she added.

Good faith 

According to DEFRA’s SPS handbook, penalties and reductions are made if applications are submitted after deadlines, they breach scheme rules, cross-compliance requirements are not met or applications are amended after the deadline.

It may be possible to waive penalties if mistakes are declared before forms are inspected. Otherwise, apart from cases of force majeure (unusual circumstances outside your control), exceptional circumstances or obvious error, there is no discretion to waive penalties.

Mistakes that can be classed as obvious errors may be corrected without penalty at any time if it is clear the claimant acted in good faith, there is no risk of fraud and the same mistake has not been made previously.