A trio of hare coursers who caused hundreds of pounds of damage to a farmer’s crops have been hit with more than £1000 in total fines.
Jimmy Cole, 43, Chase Loveridge, 36, and Levi Cole, 20, were spotted driving a silver Land Rover across a field near Cambridge Road, in Fowlmere, at about noon on 24 September.
Officers from the force’s Rural Crime Action Team (RCAT) were able to quickly box the car in near the junction with the A505.
They found the five-seater car was overloaded with three men, three children and three dogs.
Jimmy Cole, the driver, denied hare coursing and claimed he had driven to the area from Surrey to ‘walk the dog’.
The three men were issued with community protection notices and dispersed from the area.
Officers then returned to the field and found extensive damage caused to the crops where the men had driven straight through the middle and ignored a number of ‘no vehicles’ signs.
The damage caused to the sugar beet crops was estimated to cost the farmer about £500.
The men were summonsed and sentenced at Cambridge Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday (20 January).
Jimmy Cole, of Lyne Road, Surrey, admitted criminal damage, daytime trespass in pursuit of game and using a motor vehicle dangerously. He was ordered to pay £500 compensation to the farmer, fined an additional £500 and three penalty points were added to his licence.
Loveridge, of Guildford Road, Surrey, and Levi Cole, of Lyne Road, Surrey, admitted daytime trespass in pursuit of game and were handed £300 fines.
DC Tom Nuttall, from the RCAT, said: “These men showed complete disregard for the farmer by driving over his crops and damaging his livelihood, all to try and escape from police with an overloaded car.
“We will continue to do all we can and use whatever methods possible to disrupt and deter hare coursers in Cambridgeshire.”
Source: Cambridgeshire Police
