Livestock farmer Richard Lennox has been fined £1,500 after being convicted of three charges of giving false information relating to a lorryload of sheep.

Paperwork gave the name of another person as the transporter and said the journey time was eight hours less than it was.

Lennox, of Layer de la Haye, was also told to pay £1,217 costs in a case brought by Kent County Council Trading Standards.

He was cleared of denying the animals adequate ventilation.

A charge of causing about 370 sheep unnecessary suffering while being shipped to a German slaughterhouse on a P&O passenger ferry was dismissed at the start of the hearing after no evidence was offered.

The prosecution alleged that Lennox hid the sheep by drawing heavy "curtains" across the open sides of the articulated trailer.

On checking in at Dover, he described the load as "farm produce" and boarded the ferry.

It was on arrival at Calais that staff smelled the sheep and Lennox was questioned.

In his defence, Lennox said the trailer had been equipped with ventilating fans and the curtains had ventilation holes in them.

It was a fairly cold February night and the vehicle deck of the ferry was not full, so the temperature of the sheep would not have risen unduly, he said.

Speaking after the case, Clive Bainbridge, head of Kent Trading Standards, said: "The documents concerned are supposed to enable the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to monitor live animal exports and ensure that livestock is transported in accordance with legal requirements.

"The provision of false information frustrates these efforts and we are pleased that the court in this case recognised this with a substantial fine."

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.