Duo jailed for £35,000 sheep rustling crime

Two farm workers, Thomas Redfern and Andrew Piner, who stole livestock worth more than £35,000 from farms in Lancashire and Yorkshire, have been jailed.

Thomas Redfern, 25, denied the crimes of rustling 88 ewes after the animals were taken in raids at Curwen Hill Farm, Wray, close to Lancaster and Newton Hall Farm, Skipton - where he previously worked two years ago.

Despite the denial, he was found unanimously guilty of two counts of theft relating to the sheep and was jailed for 21 months.

Andrew Piner, 45, was jailed for 34 months after he admitted theft at an earlier hearing. He was the manager of Lathams Farm near Slaidburn - where the sheep were found.

The pair were caught following an extensive investigation in which DNA evidence was taken from the suspected stolen sheep following a raid at Lathams Farm.

Preston Crown Court heard how one victim, farmer Dan Towers, had invested his life savings in his flock at Curwen Hill Farm. In September 2013, Redfern, of Chisholme Close, Standish, was working as a stockman at the Skipton farm when 30 crossbred mule ewes were stolen, with a value of £5,000.

Five months later in February 2014, 58 pregnant pedigree Beltex and recipient mule ewes carrying Beltrex embryos were stolen following a burglary at Curwen Hill Farm.

Judge Simon Newell said the Forest of Bowland was an area of outstanding natural beauty which was “almost entirely dependent on agriculture” for its economy.