A NEWCASTLE Emlyn farmer cleared of charges relating to animal welfare breaches and administering noxious material to his own cattle in the course of tampering with TB tests almost lost his dairy business as a result of his three-year battle, it emerged this week.

Almost three years on from initial TB testing of his herd, Hefin Owen’s cattle were placed under restrictions and then Animal and Plant Health Authority officials accused him of tampering.

Compensation payments were stopped and his dairy farm faced financial ruin.

But last week District Judge Parsons, sitting at Aberystwyth magistrates court, found Mr Owen not guilty of all offences after the defence team was able to demonstrate over the five-day case the ‘complete failure’ of the prosecution to prove their case, the negligence of individual officers and fundamental flaws in their evidence.

The judge commented in his verdict on these failures directly, as having led to such a “protracted and unfair” case.

Solicitor Aled Owen, of Harrison Clark Rickerbys who represented Mr Owen in court, said: “His farm almost went to the wall because of this.

“As a solicitor I’ve been involved in similar cases of farmers being unfairly prosecuted, but this is the worst case I’ve ever come across.”

He told the Cambrian News that after a vet had initially diagnosed TB among Mr Owen’s herd a blunder by a colleague had left around 40 diseased cattle on the farm.

See this week’s south papers for the full story, available in shops and as a digital edition now