Four men have been fined and banned from seven counties in the East of England in connection with hare coursing in Ixworth.

John Adams, Paul Bristow, Douglas Smith and Henry Stanford, all from Kent, appeared at Bury St Edmunds Magistrates’ Court yesterday charged with daytime trespass in pursuit of game at farmland in the village on October 5 last year.

A fifth man, Sam Collins, 19, of Bethersden in Ashford, Kent, was also charged, but failed to turn up at court so a warrant was issued for his arrest. Adams, 21, Bristow, 24, both of Chart Road, Great Chart, Ashford, Smith, 26, of Egerton Road in Charing Heath, Ashford, and Stanford, 23, of Great Chart, each received a fine of £175 and were each ordered to pay costs of £85 and a £20 victim surcharge.

They were issued with a restraining order not to enter Suffolk, Norfolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Lincolnshire and Bedfordshire for the purposes of or pursuit of hare coursing. The vehicle they used, a Vauxhall Monterey, was also forfeited.

Speaking after the hearing, Pc Mark Bryant, rural crime officer for Suffolk police, said he was “delighted” with the result. “It was a major hare coursing incident. It involved a lot of police time.”

The suspects were pursued by police, including with assistance from the force helicopter, and were arrested in Harleston. Pc Bryant said the number of hare coursing incidents in Suffolk had dropped over the past three years. He said if anyone sees hare coursing in progress to call 999.