Three arrested on suspicion of hare coursing as dispersal order comes into force

Lincolnshire Police received a report of hare coursing at Amber Hill, near Boston, at 1.27pm yesterday (Monday) and officers pursued a Subaru Forester, which collided with a coach at Swineshead Bridge.

The three occupants, aged 34, 34, and 24, from Doncaster and Nottingham, made off and were arrested shortly afterwards. They remain in custody and will be questioned in due course.

This comes as the force issued a dispersal order across the county following an increase in reports of hare coursing, where suspected hare coursers will be required to leave Lincolnshire and anyone returning to the county will face arrest.

The order began at 10.40am today (Tuesday) after police received ten calls in relation to suspected hare coursers between 8.30am and 11am, and is in place for 48 hours.

As the hare coursing season continues, Lincolnshire Police’s Rural Crime Action Team is assisting with Operation Galileo, a national approach to tackling and deterring hare coursers, working with 31 other forces continue to patrol the county for potential hare coursers and attend reported incidents.

Seven arrests have been made in the past two weeks and in September, police received 15 reports compared to 55 the previous September, while in October, officers received 34 compared to 81 last October.

Superintendent Lee Pache, force lead for rural crime, said: “We have built close links with our rural communities which has helped us build intelligence around where hare coursers operate and sometimes who they are. Some criminals will travel hundreds of miles to be involved and are often associated with organised crime gangs.

“What many people don’t realise is that the hare coursing is a means to these gangs generating huge sums of money through live-streaming their activities for illegal gambling around the world. This then funds other criminal activity.

“We would urge members of the public to report any instances of active hare coursing by calling 999 or reporting online after the event.”

This year also has seen new legislation come in, which increases the penalties on conviction and has also provided police forces with new offences.

The original legislation dates back to the Game Act of 1831, which made it an offence to trespass on land in pursuit of game, which traditionally used to be a few men with one or two dogs walking in a line across a field.

However, now hares are spotted using thermal cameras or binoculars.

The new legislation defines trespass as simply as having no permission to be on the land, and creates an offence of being equipped for searching for or pursuing hares with dogs, typically this will include dogs such as hunting dogs such as the lurcher, greyhound or saluki, binoculars, thermal scopes and video cameras.

The second offence is trespass with intent to search for or pursue hares with dogs.

Marc Jones, Lincolnshire Police and Crime Commissioner, added: “I pledged to make tackling rural crime a priority and have ensured the force has been provided with the equipment and frontline officers to make a real difference.

“I am delighted the force has deployed these extra resources successfully. Keeping rural communities safe will continue to be an important focus.”

Anyone who sees hare coursing taking place is asked to call 999 immediately and provide officers with a description of the people involved, registration numbers and vehicle descriptions and the location and direction of travel.

It is important that people do not confront those hare coursing, or put themselves at risk.