A NORTH Tipperary farmer was last night sentenced to eight months imprisonment and fined £17,000 when convicted on charges including administration of the banned animal growth promoter, clenbuterol.
Stanley Mounsey, a father of four from Clashnevin Upper, Norwood, Nenagh, was convicted of 60 out of a total of 67 charges relating to animal drugs abuse regulations.
The judge at Nenagh District Court directed that a number of jail sentences he imposed should run concurrently. An eight month sentence was imposed for possession of a meal sample containing clenbuterol.
Mounsey was given a number of individual fines of £500 for administering clenbuterol to cattle on his lands, together with a series of £400 fines for moving animals after a restriction order had been in place. He was also ordered to pay £4,260 in costs.
Mounsey's convictions arose out of inspections on his lands by Department of Agriculture officers in 1992 and 1994.
Recognisances were fixed at £2,000 of his own, and an independent surety of £10,000.