CONVICTED (2018) | prolific hare courser James McPhee, born c. 1967, of Bloomfield Crescent, Arbroath DD11 3LL – unleashed lurcher dogs on wild hares.

Car dealer McPhee, who is now said to be living in Roseacres Chalets, Newport-on-Tay, Fife DD6 8SP, pleaded guilty to charges of hunting a brown hare with a dog at Carrot Farm, Carrot Hill, Inverarity, on April 28, 2017, and at Ingliston Farm in Forfar, on May 12, 2017.

The court heard that as a member of the travelling community, McPhee had been in the habit of hare coursing for food, resulting in a number of previous convictions.

Defence solicitor Nick Markowski said that in the first offence the accused had been seen with his daughters in a field, while the other matter involved two dogs and several men in what the court was told was a “classic hare coursing” scenario.

Mr Markwoski said McPhee’s dog, Gip, had now been given to a friend and had recently had pups.

“His record of 35 convictions over the past 20 years is reasonably significant, but it has slowed down and his last contravention of the Wild Mammals Act was in 2009,” the lawyer said.

“He accepts he has a record for hare coursing from when he was a younger man and he is under no illusions that what is uppermost in the court’s mind is prison.

“He doesn’t have a dog, that car was sold for very little and he is apologetic to the court,” said Mr Markowski.

Sheriff Murray told McPhee there were “several aspects of considerable concern” in the case, including his role in driving others to participate in coursing and giving away the dog, which he said could often be worth thousands of pounds in such crimes.

“What occurred was obviously hare coursing and these are your 11th and 12th convictions so there can be no alternative to a sentence of imprisonment,” said the sheriff.

In 2016 McPhee was prosecuted for hare coursing alongside father and son Mark Reid and John Stewart and others, but was cleared on that occasion due to lack of evidence.

Sentencing | 195 days in prison.

The Courier