A MAN has been jailed for 16 weeks for twice defying a ban on keeping horses.

Alan Smith told the RSPCA he “wasn’t particularly bothered whether he was disqualified or not” when they discovered he was keeping a pony in his small garden on the Osbaldwick travellers’ site, said Philip Brown, prosecuting for the animal charity. The pony was removed from the site before the charity could seize it.

Two months later, the charity learnt that Smith was repeatedly tethering horses, including the pony, on a farmer’s land despite the farmer moving them off. The horses were damaging the land and putting at risk the farmer’s government cash for encouraging wildlife.

“He (Smith) made it clear he was going to tether the horses back on the farmer’s land whether he liked it or not,” said Mr Brown. When interviewed by the RSPCA, he repeatedly urged the charity to put the horses down.

Smith, 53, was banned from keeping horses for five years in November 2012 after being convicted of failing to care properly for horses which had been tethered by the roadside.

York magistrates jailed him for 16 weeks, including eight weeks which had been suspended in May 2013 when he was convicted of more horse neglect offences. They gave him another five-year ban from keeping horses, starting from the day he was sent to jail.

Smith admitted two charges of breaking a ban on keeping horses and two of neglecting to care properly for horses, committed in December 2013 and February 2014.

His wife Betty, 68, of the same address, admitted one charge of breaking her ban on keeping horses and one of failing to care properly for the pony. She was given a four-week nightly curfew and ordered to pay £200 costs and a statutory £60 surcharge. She too was given another five-year ban on keeping horses.

For the couple, Kevin Blount said Betty Smith had been helping her husband, suffered from arthritis and other health problems, and would have difficulties coping by herself. The court heard Alan Smith, who also had health problems, had grown up in a horsedrawn caravan and found it “painful” to live without horses.