On the 9th October 2023 John Langan, aged 37, of The Hawthorns in Great Ayton was was sentenced to 12 weeks imprisonment, suspended for 12 months after pleading guilty to the offences of trespass and going equipped to trespass with intent to search for or pursue hares with dogs, under Section 63 and Section 64 Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022.
He was also given a ten-year Criminal Behaviour Order covering England and Wales with conditions around the control of dogs, not being on private farmland without permission and a complete ban on entering Humberside.
He was also fined £85 costs, £154 victim surcharge, disqualified from driving for 56 days and ordered to complete 80 hours of unpaid supervised work within the next 12 months.
Will this deter him?
Going on his past record I don’t think so:
In September 2012 Langan was fined £239 for a hunting offence, a forfeiture order was placed on his dog, and he was disqualified for five years from owning, keeping or being in control of dog.
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Men fined hundreds of pounds after being caught hare coursing – 13th September 2021
Two men have been fined hundreds of pounds after being caught hare coursing in North Yorkshire.
Thomas Agar McDonald, 33, from Stokesley, and John Alan Langan, 35, from Great Ayton were caught by police officers after a report from a member of the public.
Both men took off from police on January 23 in a Honda CR-V and ran a red light before they were caught and arrested.
On Monday, McDonald and Langan appeared at Harrogate Magistrates’ Court after pleading guilty to hunting a wild mammal with dogs.
McDonald also admitted an offence of failing to comply with a road traffic sign.
A statement from North Yorkshire Police said: “On the afternoon of Saturday, January 23, a vigilant member of the public called police to report that poachers were chasing hares with a dog in a field near Chapel Haddlesey, Selby.
“Our officers attended immediately. The suspects made off from the area in a Honda CR-V, and in the process drove through a red light.
“Officers followed them, and stopped them in South Milford, where they were both arrested, and their dog and car seized.”
McDonald was fined a total of £239 for the hunting offence, as well as £100 and three points for going through the red light.
Langan was fined £239 for the hunting offence, a forfeiture order was placed on the dog, and he was disqualified for five years from owning, keeping or being in control of dog.
https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/men-fined-hundreds-pounds-after-21560986
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Men appear in court charged with hare coursing offences – 2nd May 2018
On 26 April six men appeared at Hull Magistrates Court in relation to hare coursing in the Preston are of the East Riding on January 2018. All six pleaded guilty to offences of trespassing and offences under the Game Act 1831.
John Langan of Middlesbrough was ordered to pay a total of £415. Ceri Mortimer of Rhonda , Wales was ordered to pay a total of £315. Jamie Prosser of Middlesbrough was ordered to pay a total of £345. William McElvaney of Whitby was ordered to pay a total of £281. Robert Ward of Darlington was ordered to pay a total of £348. Thomas Foster of Middlesbrough was ordered to pay a total of £281
DRIFFIELD: Men appear in court charged with hare coursing offences
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Teesside men fined for practising ‘soul destroying’ blood sport – 7th February 2018
Two Teesside men have been fined – and dogs seized – after they were caught hare coursing.
John Langan, of The Hawthornes, Great Ayton, was spotted by Lincolnshire Police in September 2017.
He and another man were hare coursing – where dogs chase wild hares before killing them – on Lincolnshire’s Digby Fen.
Langan, 31, had previously been made subject to an antisocial behaviour order (ASBO) for similar offences.
In March 2010, he was arrested in Bridlington and charged with hunting a wild mammal with dogs.
He was found to be involved in a high number of other incidents of poaching and hare coursing between 2005 and 2010.
The ASBO lasted for three years, but he was again caught in the cruel act and fined at Lincoln Magistrates’ Court .
In the latest offence he was charged alongside 34-year-old Thomas Jaffray, of The Greenway, Thorntree, Middlesbrough .
Two lurcher dogs, called Lucky and Spencer, were seized and are now in kennels waiting to be re-homed.
Both Langan and Jaffray were fined £120 and ordered to pay £300 costs and £30 charges.
Both received driving bans and were given criminal behaviour orders (CBO).
This will prohibit them from being on private land in Lincolnshire with lurchers or similar dogs.
Chief superintendent Mark Housley of Lincolnshire Police said: “We’ve waited for a result like this for some time but I’m very pleased now we have got it.
“Here in Lincolnshire we know that by seizing dogs we stop people wanting to come here for hare coursing, and it also prevents all the violence towards farmers and the damage to their property that goes with it.
“People living in urban areas wouldn’t believe how bad this is – it’s soul destroying for farmers and their families, many of who I know have struggled to sleep at night because of threats made by hare coursers.
“The welfare of the dogs is also very important to us.
“Only a week ago we came across a dog that had been left in a field to die as the hare coursers left her so they could escape from police officers.
“Our officers were horrified to see she had been fatally struck on her head.
“We will continue to make every effort to tackle this cruel and supposed ‘sport’, and get the animals into the caring home a dog should have.”
https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/teesside-men-fined-practising-soul-14260786
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Lincolnshire hare coursing: Seized dogs to be rehomed -19th January 2018
Two dogs which had been used in illegal hare coursing have been rehomed.
The lurchers, Lucky and Spencer, were seized by police in Lincolnshire when their owners were arrested for hare coursing in Digby Fen last September.
John Langan, 31, of Great Ayton and Thomas Jaffray, 34, of Middlesbrough, were found guilty at Lincoln Magistrates’ Court last Friday.
Police said it was the first time hare coursing dogs were rehomed rather than returned to their owners.
Lincolnshire is popular with hare coursers due to its large areas of flat open farmland, and police in the county dealt with 2,000 calls during the 2015-16 season.
The dogs are being cared for in a kennel where they have been since the offenders were arrested, and will soon be rehomed.
Langan and Jaffray were fined £180 and £300 in costs respectively and a £30 victim surcharge each. Both were disqualified from driving for two months and banned from being on private land in Lincolnshire with lurchers or similar dogs.
Ch Supt Mark Housley said: “People living in urban areas wouldn’t believe how bad this is – it’s soul destroying for farmers and their families, many of who I know have struggled to sleep at night because of threats made by hare coursers.
“The welfare of the dogs is also very important to us. Only a week ago we came across a dog that had been left in a field to die as the hare coursers left her so they could escape from police officers.”