A bench warrant has recently been issued for a farmer in Co. Tipperary – who previously sued the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine – in relation to a sheep kill.

69-year-old John Hanrahan was convicted of two charges under the Control of Dogs Act at a sitting of Carrick-on-Suir District Court on Thursday, October 26.

Hanrahan – who has an address in Ballycurkeen, Carrick-on-Suir – was charged after a dog belonging to him attacked sheep on two separate occasions in Butlerstown, Co. Tipperary.

The attacks – which occurred approximately three weeks apart – took place in July and August of 2014.

A number of sheep were attacked and killed during the incidents. The victims estimated that the total cost of the ordeal amounted to over €2,300.

Last month, Hanrahan was awarded close to €300,000 in damages – plus interest – by the Supreme Court in a case against the Department of Agriculture, which has rumbled on for over 10 years.

The farmer reportedly brought the case forward after the Department of Agriculture failed to return 223 cattle out of a total of 355 which had been seized from his farm. The cattle were subsequently sold a few weeks after being seized.

The Supreme Court ruled in Hanrahan’s favour after the department appealed a High Court decision. The Tipperary farmer also won a legal battle in the 1980s against a pharmaceutical company, when he alleged that emissions from a factory belonging to the company led to his dairy herd being decimated.

5-year jail sentence for DoneDeal scammer

Meanwhile, a five-year jail sentence – with the final year suspended – has been handed down to a DoneDeal scammer who advertised and sold stolen livestock trailers.

The scammer – 40-year-old Owen Maughan, from 39 Innishannagh Park, Newcastle, Galway – used the website on a regular basis to sell livestock trailers that had been stolen from farmers who were attending marts across counties Galway and Clare, according to the Connacht Tribune.

Maughan – who has approximately 90 previous convictions – was reportedly described by the investigating Garda, Paul McNulty, as “one of the most prolific scam artists in the country”.