In December 2012 a farmer from Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, an alleged bTB hot spot area and venue for one of the infamous pilot badger culls next year, was taken to court for offences relating to bTB controls. The fraud offences could be summarised as deliberate swapping of identities of TB reactor cattle with healthy livestock; retaining the reactor animal and producing milk from it; and in one case having a calf born to a reactor cow. Fraudulent farmer Timothy Juckes, 36, kept on selling milk from cattle which had tested positive for TB and should have been destroyed, a court heard. The farmer, from Gloucestershire, one of the alleged bTB hot spot counties and venue for one of the infamous pilot cull trials, was prosecuted by the Gloucestershire Trading Standards department. Juckes, of Tredington House, Tredington, near Tewkesbury, admitted 10 charges of fraud against Defra.

Four of his animals reacted to TB tests carried out by a Government vet and had been condemned to slaughter, Gloucester Crown Court was told. But instead of having them put down, Juckes sent the livestock to the slaughterhouse instead,. He was then paid compensation - a total of £4,173, plus £1225 for the later animal - by Defra for the livestock which should have been destroyed but he also earned money by selling milk from condemned animals.

Because there is to be a Proceeds of Crime investigation into his finances to determine what assets he has and what his criminal benefit was Judge William Hart decided to adjourn sentence. He said he had a 'substantial' financial penalty and costs in mind once the Proceeds of Crime position had been finalised.

Mr Liddiard told the court that on October 15, 2010, a veterinary inspector went to Mr Juckes' farm and found that three cattle were positive reactors to TB. Another test was carried out the following month and there was a single reactor animal and he was told that, too, had to be slaughtered. The court was told that; 'The prosecution amounts to this: in reality he did not send any of the four reactor animals to slaughter. He did send four animals, but not those four.' He had sold milk from one of the animals for a year, earning £3,500 for it. He went about ensuring that he could continue to use these animals. It was a fairly deliberate and fairly persistent process on his part," he said.

Judge William Hart told Adam Vaitilingham, defending, that he was not considering a prison sentence or an unpaid work order and a financial penalty was appropriate. He bailed Juckes to a date to be fixed after April 1, adding: "I will not be sending you to prison."

Info from www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/Fraudulent-farmer-Timothy-Juckes-continued-sell/story-17573639-detail/story.html