Man fined £10,000 for illegal horse exports
A man from Essex has been fined £10,000 for illegally exporting horses to Holland.
James Harbour, 42, of Acacia Road, Basildon, admitted transporting horses through Harwich without correct documents.
Hundreds of animals were transported between August 2010 and February 2011.
On 29 June, Harbour pleaded guilty to a charge of transporting horses in an uninspected vehicle; two charges of having incomplete export licences; a charge of not having passports for six horses, and 14 charges of failing to get an export licence.
Colchester Magistrates’ Court heard that Harbour was trying to cut costs but was also illiterate, so could not fill out the forms.
Harbour denied a further 10 charges, which were dropped by prosecutors acting for Essex Trading Standards and Defra.
This news story was first published in the current issue of H&H (5 July 2012)
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A self-confessed newshound, farmer’s daughter and journalist of many years' experience, Charlotte worked on regional papers before joining H&H in 2007. A regular rider, she visited Ireland in 2010 to investigate the fate of Irish horses through the recession, to much acclaim, and reported from the FEI General Assembly in Rio de Janeiro in 2011. She left Horse & Hound in March 2013.