DRACONIAN VENGANCE AS CHARITABLE RSPCA PERSECUTE PENSIONER, TO THE GRAVE !

Horse owner may have to pay £31K court costs after death to RSPCA

A CHATTERIS man could be forced to pay £31,291.41 to the RSPCA after he dies if the charity wins a court case against him.

Roger Barrettt owes the animal charity the cash following a court case in 2004 when he pleaded guilty to ill-treating horses and was given a conditional discharge and was ordered to pay the money in costs. However, since then Barrett has lost an appeal against the costs and had also applied for permission to appeal at the high court - a move he had not followed up.
Jason Stevens, for the RSPCA, told magistrates at Wisbech on Friday the costs had arisen from the earlier court case and caring for the horses, which had been taken off Barrett and cared for by the charity. They were later returned to him. Mr Stevens said following a previous hearing Barrett had been ordered to pay the costs off at £5 a week out of his pension - which meant he would still be paying them for the next 120 years. He told magistrates the RSPCA were planning to take the case to the County Court to ask for a charge to be put on Barrett's home at Meadowside Cottage, 158 High Street. Mr Stevens said the charity would not force Barrett to sell his home, but would wait until the property was sold - even if that happened after his death. David Chapple, defending, argued it was unusual for a court to make such an 'extraordinarily draconian order' for costs especially in a case where the actual sentence was a conditional discharge. And he said it was not usual to expect someone to pay court fines out of their estate after they have died.
Magistrates were told they had three options: to leave the current payment plan in place; look at remitting some of the outstanding money so that it was reduced to a level that could be paid off within the next three years; or allow Mr Stevens time to make his application to the County Court. Magistrates agreed to adjourn the case to March 12, to give the RSPCA chance to get a decision from the County Court on putting a possible charge on Barrett's home.
http://www.fenlandcitizen.co.uk/news/Horse-owner-may-have-to.4885873.jp