CONVICTED: Was justice served?
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Case #8079 Rating: 3.3 out of 5
Farmed animal neglect
Oxenton, EN (UK)Incident Date: Sunday, Sep 23, 2001
Disposition: Convicted
Defendant/Suspect: Francis Beavis
Case Updates: 2 update(s) available
Francis Beavis of Hill Farm, Oxenton, in Bishops Cleeve who has admitted causing unnecessary suffering to animals has been banned from keeping sheep for ten years and pigs for five.
Beavis has also been ordered to pay £10,000 in costs and to do 100 hours of community service.
A trading standards officer found a bull that had to be put down because of a swelling on its leg. There was a ram on the farm with an infection that caused blindness and a pig with an infected rear leg.
The pigs were also found without any clean water to drink, they were drinking from contaminated puddles.
Case UpdatesFrancis Beavis has escaped a four-month jail spell by finally paying up a £7,000 court fine â€" 11 months after it was due.
The 68-year-old appeared at Cheltenham Magistrates' Court on Monday for a committal hearing after he continued to dodge paying the £7,123.34 he owed.
Magistrates gave the farmer just two hours to pay the amount in full and said he would be jailed if he failed to pay up.
Trading Standards, which brought the action against him, was notified Beavis had paid the fine by 3pm.
Beavis, of Crown Drive in Bishop's Cleeve, had come up with a string of excuses over the past year to avoid paying what he owed.
He claimed he was so broke he could only afford to pay in £15 installments.
After selling his £200,000 Hill Farm in January he was ordered to pay the full amount. But instead he splashed out on new land to the tune of £150,000.
Cheltenham Magistrates' Court heard in May that Beavis received money from Paddy Power who erected their "Hollywood" style sign on his land on Cleeve Hill during the Cheltenham Festival.
The pensioner had a string of animal cruelty convictions when he admitted breaching a ban on keeping animals and was fined £7,108 in August of last year.
He had admitted on five occasions in 2008 to breaching a court order disqualifying him from keeping cattle.
Beavis was jailed for six months in June 2007 after he mistreated a calf in his care so badly it had to be put down.
He and his wife Inger owned 600 acres of land in Gloucestershire. The pair were spared a jail term in 2006 after admitting 13 cruelty charges, including causing unnecessary suffering and allowing natural breeding likely to cause injury. They were banned from keeping livestock for 10 years and fined £56,550.
David Honey, group manager for Gloucestershire Trading Standards, said: "We're very pleased with this result. There were investigation and legal costs that were rightfully incurred by the Trading Standards service in bringing Mr Beavis to justice before the courts. It's right and proper that he and not the local council tax payers should foot the bill."
Beavis' daughter Annika is due in court on Monday to explain why she has not paid fines of £24,438.60 for similar animal cruelty charges. | Source: The Citizen - Jul 21, 2010
Update posted on Jul 21, 2010 - 3:43PM |
A Gloucestershire farmer has been banned from keeping any animals for life after being found guilty of breaching a court order.
Francis Beavis, 68, of Bishop's Cleeve, was given a two-year suspended prison sentence for ignoring the previous order banning him from keeping cattle.
Stroud Magistrates also fined him £7,000 and ordered him to do 240 hours community service.
Mr Beavis and his wife Inger have 50 animal cruelty convictions.
Mr and Mrs Beavis farmed Hill Farm, Oxenton, near Bishop's Cleeve.
They first came to the attention of Gloucestershire County Council officers in 2002 and in 2006. Mr Beavis was banned from keeping cattle after trading standards officers uncovered evidence of animal cruelty and paperwork offences.
Trading standards
In June 2007, Mr Beavis was jailed for ignoring that order.
The 750-strong herd was transferred to a trust managed by the Beavis's daughter Annika, but in April she was jailed for six months for animal cruelty charges.
Trading standards officers set up surveillance on the farm and recorded five instances of Mr Beavis having custody of the herd.
The court heard he had paid a farm worker an extra £1 an hour to pretend he was the animals' keeper.
Defending Mr Beavis, Terry McCarthy told the court that his client did not intend keeping animals again, and said a custodial sentence would have a detrimental effect on his disabled wife.
Claire Miers, animal health inspector and investigating officer, said: "Mr Beavis has displayed an unprecedented level of incompetence in caring for the cattle, coupled with a great determination to continue keeping them in breach of the court orders imposed on both him and his family.
"The court order made in April 2009 which enabled all the remaining cattle at the farm to be taken into possession and the new disqualification order made today will ensure that no more animals will suffer at Mr Beavis' hands." | Source: BBC News - Aug 27, 2009
Update posted on Aug 30, 2009 - 9:16PM |
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