Three hare coursers - whose five-seater car was overloaded with three men, three children and three dogs - have been fined £1,000 for damaging a farmer’s crops.

When he was spotted with Chase Loveridge, 36, and Levi Cole, 20, the 43-year-old driver, Jimmy Cole, denied hare coursing and claimed he had driven to Cambridgeshire from Surrey to 'walk the dog'.

They were seen driving a silver Land Rover across a field near Cambridge Road, in Fowlmere, at noon on September 24.

Officers from the force’s Rural Crime Action Team (RCAT) were able to quickly box the car in near the junction with the A505.

The three men were issued with community protection notices and dispersed from the area.

Officers then returned to the field and found extensive damage caused to the crops where the men had driven straight through the middle and ignored a number of 'no vehicles' signs.

The damage caused to the sugar beet crops was estimated to cost the farmer about £500.

The men were summonsed and sentenced at Cambridge Magistrates' Court on Wednesday (January 20).

Jimmy Cole, of Lyne Road, Surrey, admitted criminal damage, daytime trespass in pursuit of game and using a motor vehicle dangerously.
He was ordered to pay £500 compensation to the farmer, fined an additional £500 and three penalty points were added to his licence.

Loveridge, of Guildford Road, Surrey, and Levi Cole, of Lyne Road, Surrey, admitted daytime trespass in pursuit of game and were handed £300 fines.

DC Tom Nuttall, from the RCAT, said: “These men showed complete disregard for the farmer by driving over his crops and damaging his livelihood, all to try and escape from police with an overloaded car.

"We will continue to do all we can and use whatever methods possible to disrupt and deter hare coursers in Cambridgeshire."