Cattle tag swap farmer faces substantial fine

A dairy farmer who swapped ear tags between bovine tuberculosis reactors and healthy cattle has been told by a crown court judge that he faces a substantial fine.

Timothy Juckes, 36, of Tredington House, Tredington, nr Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, admitted to 10 charges of fraud at a hearing in Gloucester crown court.

The court was told that four of Mr Juckes’ animals were condemned to slaughter after reacting to TB tests. But he sent other livestock to the slaughterhouse instead and continued to sell milk from one of the reactors,

Martin Liddiard, prosecuting for Gloucestershire trading standards department, said: “The fraud offences could be summarised as the deliberate swapping of identities of TB reactor cattle with healthy livestock, retaining the reactor animal and producing milk from it. And, in one case, having a calf born to a reactor cow.”

Mr Liddiard added: “DEFRA paid a total of £4,173 compensation for the animals. He sold milk from one of the animals for a year, earning £3,500 for it.

“[Mr Juckes] went about ensuring that he could continue to use these animals. It was a fairly deliberate and persistent process on his part.”

Judge William Hart commented that it was “a wholesale flouting of the proper procedures”.

The judge added that he had a “substantial” financial penalty and costs in mind but adjourned sentencing until a Proceeds of Crime investigation into Mr Juckes’ finances had been carried out.

Bailing Mr Juckes to a date to be fixed after 1 April next year, the judge told him: “You are required to cooperate and provide information about your financial position. But you can at least leave today with the assurance that I will not be sending you to prison.”