Court orders farmer to pay £3,850 for illegal cattle movements
© Tim Scrivener A Dorset farmer, who falsified calf identities and breached cattle movement restrictions, has been fined £1,250 and ordered to pay £2,600 in council costs.
Brian Garrett, 76, of Fernbrook Farm, Gillingham Road pleaded guilty to six offences under the Cattle Identification Regulations 2007 at Weymouth Magistrates’ Court on 4 February.
Mr Garrett was prosecuted after an investigation by Dorset County Council Trading Standards officers.
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The farm was inspected on 4 July 2017, but when officers returned three days later they found several of the cattle had been moved.
Trading Standards also carried out DNA tests on two calves that bore replacement ear tags.
The tests revealed the tag numbers failed to match the calves’ identities.
According to regional newspaper the Dorset Echo, the movement restrictions were in place after an earlier investigation by Rural Payment Agency officers.
RPA officials visited the farm in 2014 and uncovered serious discrepancies in Mr Garrett’s calf record keeping.
Because Mr Garrett repeatedly refused to return a number of calf passports, he was served a notice restricting the movement of all cattle.
Since then Mr Garrett had continued to move livestock up to January 2019 and he was prosecuted in relation to 16 of the illegally moved cattle.
Mr Garrett was fined £1,250 plus a £135 victim surcharge and ordered to pay the county council £2,600 in costs.