A Herefordshire mixed farmer who was sent to prison last year after he dredged a mile-long stretch of the River Lugg has been sentenced again.
John Price, 69, who farms near Leominster, pleaded guilty on Wednesday 31 January to illegally felling a large area of woodland, including some trees that were around 50 years old.
Forestry Commission agents attended the site in February 2022 following a report than men with heavy machinery were clearing an area in woodland around Ryelands Farm in Ludlow.
The men said they were working on behalf of Mr Price and denied knowing they needed a licence to fell the trees.
The farmer failed to respond to letters from the Forestry Commission and they discovered he was actually in prison for illegally clearing a large tract of land next to the back of the River Lugg in Hereford.
In April 2023 he was jailed for 10 months for that offence and heavily fined. The sentence was later reduced on appeal.
He was brought back before magistrates in Hereford on 31 January 2024. He was fined £1,750 and must pay costs to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) of £135 and a victim surcharge of £175.
He told the magistrates that he had merely told the workmen to “coppice” the trees - a legal process where tress are cut back to ground level to stimulate growth. The court rejected this.
The case was prosecuted by a unit at CPS Mersey Cheshire that conducts cases of illegal tree felling investigated by the Forestry Commission.
Senior Crown Prosecutor George Ward said: “John Price earns a living from the land as a farmer but clearly has no real regard for it.
“He has broken the law on two occasions in quick succession and has been sentenced for further offending after a jail term for similar criminality.
“In this latest case, the Crown Prosecution Service successfully argued in court that coppicing wouldn’t require the heavy machinery that was on site."
He went on to say: “What John Price had ordered the men to do was deforestation. When faced with the evidence Price remained silent and entered a guilty plea.
“The care of both agricultural and recreational land is controlled by the law and the CPS works with the Forestry Commission, the police and other statutory agencies to uphold that law.”
