A PROMINENT West Country farmer was caught buying half- price treatments for his sheep and cattle from an illegal web-based supplier.

Willie Cleave, who farms sheep and cattle in Devon and Cornwall, carried on buying the cheap veterinary products even after he had been raided by Defra officials.

He was ordered to pay fines and costs of more than £10,000, despite presenting a judge at Exeter Crown Court with accounts which calculated his annual income as being just £16,000.

Mr Cleave, 55, came to public notice during the foot and mouth crisis of 2001 after he transported a truckload of sheep to his farm at Highampton from the North East.

He was reported to have received compensation of £1-million after all the livestock on his eleven farms was slaughtered during the enforced cull.

The court heard how he spent more than £50,000 over three years, buying cheap products from a European-based internet supplier called Eurovet.

They included a drug called Mycotil which is used to treat hoof infections. Others included antibiotics which should only be prescribed by qualified vets and one drug which is so dangerous that stockmen have died from accidentally injecting themselves.

The judge was told he was tempted by the half-price drugs because he was under financial strain after paying a £400,000 divorce settlement.

Cleave, of Burden Farm, Highampton, last week admitted eight counts of possessing unauthorised veterinary medicines or medicines supplied outside the DEFRA regulations.

He was fined a total of £8,800 by Judge John Neligan, who also imposed £1,515 costs.

He told him:'You became interested in buying these products in 2006 because the cost was about 50 per cent less than proprietary, and may I say, safer brands supplied by reputable manufacturers.

'You were buying them particularly in a year when you were incurring particularly heavy domestic expenses, including a large amount for a financial settlement for the breakdown of your marriage.

'I am satisfied that at first you did not actually know they were unlawful but in March 2008 you were visited by Defra officials, so after that you knew they were unlawful.

'You kept purchasing these products and the prosecution say you bought a further £5,000 worth.

'The risk of using these products is to the livestock and therefore to the public who may consume wrongly or overdosed animals in the food chain.

'You have references which tell me you are a good stockman and you are undoubtedly in a fair way of business. I also bear in mind the anxiety of having this matter hanging over you for a considerable period of time.'

The judge said he was moderating the fines because he recognised that 'farming in the West Country is on a shoestring, barring the exceptions of some cattle dealers in a very big way.'

Alexis Dite, prosecuting, said Mr Cleave's purchases were uncovered during a greater investigation into a website called Eurovet which operated first from France, then Belgium, then Holland, moving each time it was raided.

He said Cleave's orders to the website totalled £56,680 before the Defra raid at his farm and £5,147 after it.

He said: 'The animals are used in the human food chain and there is a risk of residue in animals which have been administered products outside the regulatory regime and proper records are not kept.

'There is no evidence of harm to humans but the risk was certainly run.'

He said there was also a risk to humans handling the drugs.

Mr Tim Nesbitt, defending, said Mr Cleave himself had been a victim of the scam, believing the products were cheap because they were sold on the internet.

He said Mr Cleave had 1,400 cattle and 2,000 sheep at his farms and had built up his business since starting with just £2,000 in 1975. He spent £40,000 a year on veterinary products for his animals.

Mr Nesbitt said Mr Cleave had to remortgage his 300-acre farm in 2008 to pay for a £400,000 divorce settlement which had put huge strain on his finances.