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Three hare coursers have been ordered to pay more than £52,000 after travelling more than 350 miles to commit the offence in a hot spot county.

Rural crime officers said three men had appeared at Lincoln Magistrates' Court on Thursday (September 5) after pleading guilty to hare coursing offences in the Shoff Drove area, near Donington, and also in Kirton.

Samuel Sheady senior, (44) from Bro Gwilym, Wrexham, Samuel Sheady junior (23) from Bro Gwilym, Wrexham and Jason Davis (35) from Lower Ecton Road in Northampton, all pleaded guilty to being equipped for searching for or pursuing hares with dogs.  

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Lincolnshire Police's Rural Crime Action team said the hare coursers were travelling in a green VW Touareg and had been seen chasing hares with four lurcher-type dogs across a farm.

Police said they were involved in a vehicle chase with the men after they tried to evade officers on the A1121 Boardsides travelling toward the A17 at Hubberts Bridge and then along the A17, before turning into the village of Great Hale. 

The VW Touareg had then driven over a residential lawn and crashed into a fence.

After absconding from the vehicle on foot, several officers from Lincolnshire Police's specialist operations team, which includes the Rural Crime Action Team, Roads Policing, Armed Policing and the Dog Section, were involved in locating the men.  

All three men were eventually caught and arrested shortly after.

The rural crime team were able to retrieve evidence including money, a thermal imaging camera and a mobile phone, four dogs in the boot of their car, dog training equipment and a dead hare which had reportedly been thrown into a ditch by one of the hare coursers.

The Touareg had reportedly damaged a farmer's crops after driving on the field while hare coursing.

At Lincoln Magistrates' Court on June 22 last year, the three men had originally pleaded not guilty but changed their plea to guilty at a later date.

During sentencing on Thursday (September 5), the three men were ordered to pay kennelling fees, fines and costs totalling more than £52,210, which included £47,700 in compensation for keeping the dogs in a kennel.

They also received 10-year Criminal Behaviour Orders covering Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire, driving bans, the loss of their dogs, the loss of their equipment, and a 12 month driving disqualification.

Police constable Chris Windsor-Beck, of Lincolnshire Police's Rural Crime Action Team, said: "This sends out a clear message to anyone thinking of coming to Lincolnshire to carry out such a cruel activity such as hare coursing.

"We will simply will not accept this barbaric activity and anyone who comes to the county hare coursing can expect to face the full force of the law.   

"I would like to thank members of our rural community in helping to tackle hare coursing by reporting incidents, and to feel confident action will be taken if reported to the police." 

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