Two fined £13k for Lincolnshire hare coursing under new law

Two men who travelled to Lincolnshire to carry out illegal hare coursing have been ordered to pay up to £13,000.

Darren Lee, 26, and Ronnie Doherty, 21, both from the Midlands, pleaded guilty to two charges of trespass with intent to pursue hares with dogs.

They are the first people in the UK to be charged with the offence under new hare coursing legislation introduced by the government last year.

See also: What to do if you’re a victim of… hare coursing

Officers from Lincolnshire Police arrested both men in the Holbeach area after they received several reports of hare coursing in Gedney and West Pinchbeck on 25 August, 2022.

The pair were arrested after a witness used binoculars to note a Jaguar car’s registration plate.

Prosecutor Paul Wood told Boston magistrates court a phone seized from Doherty contained voice messages, conversations about hare coursing, and photos of leaflets about Lincolnshire Police’s hare coursing crackdown, Operation Galileo, and the new legislation.

The phone also contained 13 videos of illegal hare coursing, including one shot on the day of the arrests, the court heard. 

Farmers were later able to identify the land in the footage as theirs.

Mitigating, Jason Patel said there were no aggravating features, including any violence or intimidation, and both men accepted they had been caught.

Mr Patel said both men would have grown up with hare coursing around them, “an activity which is unfortunately entrenched in their history”.

Lee, of Top Road, Barnacle, Coventry, and Doughty, of Newton Road, Rushden, Northamptonshire, were ordered to pay an equal share of £11,444 for kennelling and veterinary costs for their four dogs seized by police.

Magistrates ordered the permanent forfeiture of the dogs and disqualified both men from owning or keeping dogs for five years.

They also fined the men £416 for each of the two offences and ordered them to pay a victim surcharge of £166 and prosecution costs of £85.