Two brothers from south Ceredigion have been jailed for breaching a court order banning them from keeping animals.

David Davies, 61, and 50-year-old Evan Meirion Davies, both of Penffynnon Farm in Bangor Teifi, Llandysul, were jailed for 24 weeks by District Judge David Parsons at Aberystwyth Justice Centre last week.

The judge partly activated a suspended sentence, and convicted them of breaching a disqualification order.

Ceredigion council prosecutor Maggie Hughes said the brothers were banned from keeping or being involved with caring for animals in February 2019, after being convicted of neglect that led to the death of 58 cows.

That disqualification was suspended while they appealed, but was eventually upheld in early December. The brothers were then given until the end of December to dispose of the cattle.

After denying breaching the order, they claimed during a trial that they had sold the cattle to their brother, who farms in Carmarthenshire. They said he owned the cows and was renting their farm from them.

However, Judge Parsons dismissed the claims, saying there was no evidence that it had happened and accused the brothers of a "serious breach" of the court order.

He added: "This court wasn’t born yesterday. The entire story is a fiction.

"It’s a device intended to ignore the requirements of the disqualification.

"They have refused to accept the authority of the court in terms of the disqualification."

Giving evidence, Evan Davies claimed he had not brought an invoice showing the sale of cattle to his brother and said they hadn’t asked him to attend court.

He claimed that the three brothers were "in a partnership", but Judge Parsons said that would still breach the disqualification order.

David Davies claimed there was a contract in place for their brother to take over Penffynnon Farm, but said it hadn’t been posted out by a solicitor, so couldn’t be produced in court.

Ms Hughes said checks by council officers had found that more than 100 cows were still at the farm. She insisted the brothers had made no effort to sell the cattle, and said the claim that they had sold them to their brother was false and had not been raised at an earlier court hearing.

The brothers had also claimed they had been blocked from selling cattle at market because they could not get a vet out to carry out TB checks.

But Ms Hughes said they had been sent several letters giving them the date when they must have the checks performed and had failed to do so.

After jailing the brothers, Judge Parsons also ordered them to pay £425 each toward prosecution costs, as well as surcharge of £122.

Following the sentence, Cllr Gareth Lloyd, Ceredigion council’s Cabinet member for finance and public protection, said: “Both brothers have persistently disregarded a court order banning them from keeping animals.

“The scenes witnessed by council staff, vets, police officers and contactors at the time were horrific.”