Farmer fined £92,000 for cross compliance breach

Details of the cases were put to Welsh Assembly rural affairs Minister, Elin Jones, when she toured a Gwynedd farm last week in response to union concerns over the imminent scrapping of holiday accommodation tax benefits.

But it was the issue of cross-compliance penalties which overshadowed the visit and the revelation by FUW county executive officer, Gwynedd Watkin, that he was dealing with around a dozen current cross compliance penalty cases mostly based around administrative errors.

“We have members who have been fined between £1,500 for the basic administrative error of ticking the wrong box to more than £90,000 for a planning issue involving possible damage to an ancient monument.”

Details of the £92,000 penalty, spread over two years, are not being revealed as the case is being appealed - but Mr Watkin said the case illustrated how cross-compliance penalties were often disproportionate to the “crime” especially when a genuine mistake, with no financial gain, had occurred.

If the farmer had not been claiming subsidies, the maximum he could be fined by a court is £40,000.

If it had not involved an ancient monument, the maximum would have been £12,000.

“It is not right for farmers to be disproportionately penalised so heavily,” added Mr Watkin.

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