Newspaper reveals British scam to spread foot and mouth

12.30 pm

LONDON - Startling new evidence of scams practised by British farmers to profit from the foot and mouth slaughter has been uncovered in an investigation by the Independent on Sunday newspaper, as a cull of 4,000 sheep began in Wales yesterday.

The investigation provides the first hard evidence that British farmers are being offered diseased sheep for sale, so that they can infect their own flocks and claim hundreds of thousands of pounds in compensation, funded by the taxpayer.

It has also uncovered an official document showing how the Government allows farmers to make huge profits from cleaning up their farms, by hiring their own equipment to the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) at exorbitant rates.

Even ministers are unaware of the extent of this officially sponsored scam, though they are nominally responsible for it.

Last week, the British Government suspended the clean-up of affected farms and launched an inquiry into allegations that farmers and valuers are colluding in fixing highly inflated sums in compensation for slaughtered animals.

There have long been rumours that farmers are spending thousands of pounds to buy sick animals to infect their flocks.

Now, in what Defra calls "the very first time that anyone has come forward" with evidence, a Pembrokeshire farmer has told The Independent on Sunday that she was offered an infected sheep for sale last month.

Ms Nuala Preston, who runs a stud farm as well as owning herds of sheep and cattle, said: "This chap rang up and said: 'I understand you have sheep, and would you like a foot and mouth infected sheep for £2,000 ($6,600)?' I was so disgusted I slammed the phone down and told him to go forth and multiply."

Rumours of similar approaches are now being investigated by trading standards officers at Pembrokeshire County Council together with the local police, but so far farmers are saying little. A council spokesman said: "We are taking this very seriously."

He pointed out that it could be an "attractive proposition" for farmers who could receive £90 ($299)compensation for a sheep that would have fetched £10 ($33) at market before the outbreak.

Ministers increasingly suspect that the practice – and illegal sheep movements – are responsible for some of the isolated outbreaks called "sparks" that have occurred far from established areas of infection. Defra is investigating another suspected case in England's northwest, so far without success.

One government minister said late last week: "Foot and mouth does not fly up the M6 (motorway) against the wind. The suspicion is some farmers are claiming compensation after infecting their own cattle."

The Independent on Sunday has also obtained a secret list of tariffs that Defra will pay to farmers who, nominally, hire their own equipment to the Government while they are cleaning up their farms.

The detailed list shows that in some parts of the country they are paid over £1,000 a month for using a four-wheel drive vehicle or tractor that they are already running anyway.

Similarly, they can buy a pressure washer for £700 plus VAT, and "hire" it back to the Government for over £800 a month. Clean-up operations typically take three months, yielding a large profit.

Clean-ups in England cost on average £100,000 per farm – compared to £30,000 in Scotland, where costs are more tightly controlled. Some farmers have been allowed new farmyards, sheds and barns as part of the cleansing and disinfecting process.

The agriculture minister Elliot Morley said yesterday: "We are not a soft touch. We will pay for what is reasonable, but we will make sure that it is tightly controlled."

- INDEPENDENT

Feature: Foot-and-mouth disaster

World organisation for animal health

UK Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food

The European Commission for the Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease

Pig Health/Foot and Mouth feature

Virus databases online