The owner of the one of the UK’s biggest strawberry growing companies was fined £65,000 today for contempt of a court order banning unauthorised building work on facilities for up to 1,400 migrant fruit pickers.
A High Court judge refused to send Stanley Davies to prison, but said he and his S&A Property group of companies must face a financial penalty “to make clear that injunctions must be obeyed, be you ever so large a business”.
Mr Justice Stanley Burnton also ordered them to pay £11,489 legal costs to Herefordshire District Council and said that, if the fine was not paid, the council could apply for seizure of the company’s assets.
The council has accused Davies of creating “what amounts to a new village” at Brierly Court Farm, a 200-acre former hop farm near Leominster.
After obtaining an injunction to stop further works a year ago, the authority took him back to court when he installed more than a dozen window units in a previously boarded-up amenity building.
Davies claimed the windows were covered by an exemption allowing him to “make safe” any existing structures on health and safety grounds.
But the judge rejected his argument and ruled that installation of the windows was a contempt of court.
