A cattle farmer from Flintshire in Wales has been sentenced to 46 weeks in jail for flouting TB regulations. Brynford farmer Mark Payne admitted to moving animals illegally without pre-movement testing at Mold Crown Court on Friday (2nd November).

The court heard that Mr Payne had ignored official instructions from Trading Standards and had a history of so doing.  In September 2011, Payne had illegally moved 40 head of cattle owned by his wife from Brynford to Caerwys Hall and back again without carrying out testing required of him by law. He then lied to the authorities about having conducted testing.

Payne had received a 36 week suspended sentence in 2010, after similar breaches to biosecurity regulations. He was jailed for 16 weeks, plus 24 weeks from his earlier sentence and for failing to attend court for sentencing on an earlier occasion.

Following the verdict, a Flintshire County Council spokesperson said, “Those found to be deliberately putting animal health and welfare of the Welsh herd at risk of bovine TB will be investigated and put before the courts.”

An investigation conducted last year by the European Commission revealednon-compliance and poor enforcement of biosecurity measures were widespread in the UK, as was ear-tag swapping of reactor animals, which is also highly illegal.

Although Defra ministers have assured that UK officials have since improved biosecurity as part of the government’s bovine TB eradication strategy, the government’s official response at the time was that was that delays to badger culling, “which is a significant element of the approved eradication programme, remain the major obstacle to progress.”

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