Farmer is facing £2m action over Christmas trees

Contractor sued in counter-claim after launching bid for £127k compensation

A farmer is being sued for £2 million damages over claims that he spoiled a huge crop of Christmas trees.

Agricultural contractor John Paton, 44, has been accused of neglecting the trees and slashing their value because of the poor quality in which they were sold.

Mr Paton is facing the huge bill as a counter-claim by the tree producers after he launched a bid for £127,800 compensation against them at Perth Sheriff Court.

The Perthshire-based farmer claims Noble Nordmann Ltd owe him the money because they breached the terms of a contract they gave him to look after thousands of trees.

Mr Paton was a member of farming cooperative Ringlink, which was contracted by Noble Nordmann to oversee the production of trees for the UK festive market.

His company was hired in January 2015 to look after the crop for a minimum number of 1,760 hours annually at a cost of £50 per hour.

He claims Noble Nordmann did not provide the promised instructions and maps which he needed to carry out the appropriate fertilising and treatment of the trees.

Mr Paton also told the court that by the time the contract had been formally terminated, some 2,556 hours of work had been carried out on the trees.

He said: “It has been an absolute nightmare. I’ve been a farmer and contractor all my life.

“My family were farmers before me. I have a good strong reputation.

“I did what I was asked. The counterclaim is just an attempt to get rid of me.”

However, in the counter-claim, Noble Nordmann – registered in Scotland but Danish owned – accuse Mr Paton of decreasing the value of the crop.

They told the court: “The service to be provided was work on Christmas trees using a portal tractor.

“He failed to provide a driver competent in the use of the portal tractor.

“He failed to carry out services with reasonable care.”

The company produced a report which claimed the future losses would amount to £1,173,975, while the reduced harvest in 2017 was responsible for a £152,110 loss.

They claimed a further loss of £669,514 as a result of each tree from a crop of nearly quarter of a million being sold for almost £3 less than higher quality trees.

Finally, Noble Nordmann claimed an additional £3,640 to cover the cost of extra equipment they had to buy to “mitigate losses.”

Both sides of the action will be heard at the court at a later date.

Farmer James Paton is being sued for £2 million after claims that he spoiled crops of Christmas trees which were in his care.