Sheep shipment false information
Layer de la Haye, EN (UK)Date: Mar 1999
Disposition: Convicted
Abuser/Suspect: Richard Lennox
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Livestock farmer Richard Lennox has been fined �1,500 after being convicted of three charges of giving false information relating to a lorryload of sheep.
Paperwork gave the name of another person as the transporter and said the journey time was eight hours less than it was.
Lennox, of Lay de la Haye, was also told to pay �1,217 costs in a cse brought by Ken County Council Trading Standards.
He was cleared of denying the animals adequte ventilation.
A charge of causing about 370 sheep unnecessary suffering while being shipped to a German slaughterhouse on a P&O passenger ferry was dismissed at the start of the hearing after no evidence was offered.
The prosecution alleged that Lennox hid the sheep by drawing heavy curtians across the open sides of the articulated trailer.
On checking in at Dover, he described the load a "farm produce" and boarded the ferry.
It was on arrival at Calais that staff smelled the sheep and Lennox was questioned.
In his defense, Lennox said the trailer had been equipped with ventilating fans and the curtains had ventilation holes in them.
It was a fairly cold February night and the vehicle deck of the ferry was not full, so the temperature of the sheep would not have risen unduly, he said.
Speaking after the case, Clive Bainbridge, head of Kent Trading Standards, said: "The documents concerned are supposed to enable the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to monitor live animal exports and ensure that livestock is transported in accordance with legal requirements.
"The provision of false information frustrates these efforts and we are pleased tht the court in this case recognized this with a substantial fine."
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