Hare coursing charges denied

A group of men from Angus, Fife and Dundee are facing a string of charges in relation to alleged hare coursing on farmland near Forfar.

James Mcphee, 51, of Bloomfield Crescent, Arbroath; Alexander Whyte, 51, of Roseacres Chalets, St Michaels; John Mcphee, 50, of Union Street, Cowdenbeath; and Mark Reid, 47, from Teviotdale Avenue, Dundee; all pled not guilty to the charges in a case which called before Sheriff Gregor Murray at Forfar.

James Mcphee denies that on April 28 this year at Carrot Farm, Carrot Hill, Inverarity, and elsewhere in Angus, he deliberately hunted a brown hare with a dog; or alternatively that he intentionally or recklessly took and killed a brown hare and hunted it with a dog which caught the hare.

He is also charged with deliberately hunting a brown hare with dogs at Carrot Farm and elsewhere on May 11.

All four accused are jointly charged with hunting a brown hare with two dogs on farmland at Eassie on May 12.

None of the accused was present in court.

Sheriff Murray set trial for January next year, with an intermediate diet in the case to call on December 19.

Also at Forfar: Paul Massie, 39, of Glenclova Terrace, Forfar, had sentence deferred until November 23 after he admitted stealing coffee from Costcutters in the town’s Dundee Road on September 3 this year, while he was on bail.