Sheep haulier is fined over rest
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• One of the largest sheep transporters in the country and two of its management team have been ordered to pay fines and costs totalling £12,737 for failing to rest animals after 14 hours of travelling.
Director Richard Machin and export transport director Peter Haworth of F Machin & Son, of Bramsby, near York, were found guilty by Northallerton magistrates of 123 offences of making false statements in route plans. They had denied these charges.
Haworth admitted eight offences of failing to report why a route plan had not been complied with.
Stuart Pudney, prosecuting for North Yorkshire Trading Standards, said the animals were staged in Kent for eight hours before the ferry crossing
to France. But they were not staged in Artenay, France, as they should have been according to the route plan.
By law, after 14 hours' travel sheep have to be rested for at least an hour. They can then travel a further 14 hours before a rest of at least 24 hours.
The law also demands that transporters must submit route plans for approval to the Ministry of Agriculture and certify that the plans have been complied with on their return.
Pudney said that if the company had declared the animals would not be staged in France the ministry would not have approved the route plan.
Haworth said he had been told by a ministry official that, if they could reach the destination within the permitted time, they were entitled to do so. He had understood that the second period of 14 hours could be extended by two hours to reach the destination, if it was in the best interests of the animals.
If everything went to plan there would have been no need to stop at Artenay and Haworth had mentioned the place only because the ministry had insisted on it.
Chris Charlesworth, defending, said a plan by definition could not be accurate in every detail. In all but two cases the journeys had been completed within 16 hours. There was no suggestion these animals had been exposed to any unnecessary suffering.
The magistrates fined the company and Haworth £4,000 each and Machin £2,000.