HARE coursers are being blamed destroyed around five acres of wheat, and almost caused an elderly couple’s cottage to burn down.

A team of four fire crews rushed out to a large scale field fire on Broadward Farm in Southminster where they found an abandoned car had been set alight.

The blaze spread to “within ten metres” of a cottage near to the field.

Maldon and Burnham Standard: Photo: Ben FisherPhoto: Ben Fisher

The owner of the farm, Ben Fisher, 39, said the incident is not the first case of damage being done to his land.

He has paid out £5,000 for security gates to block trespassers from entering the farm, and he lost out on a further £500 of hay bales during the incident.

He said: “The hare coursers drove on to the field and somehow their car caught alight.

“Either they got the car stuck in the field and it caught fire, or they started it themselves, I would say it got stuck.

“It is very shocking, and unfortunately we have to deal with hare coursers regularly.

“We have dug up trenches around the borders of the farm from the road as they have caused trouble a few times.”

Maldon and Burnham Standard: Photo: Ben FisherPhoto: Ben Fisher

Normally, there is now no way of driving a vehicle on to the field, however, on the day of the incident Mr Fisher had created an entrance over the trenches while he was carrying out work on the field.

He believes it was the only was the suspects could have got on to the land.

When he was alerted to the fire, Mr Fisher acted quickly and attempted to create a perimeter to contain the blaze.

He placed a cultivator in the path of the fire before the fire teams arrived with three fire engines and an off-road vehicle.

Firefighters had a limited water supply in the field so they had to use hand beaters and back pack sprayers until more water could be supplied.

Mr Fisher said the incident last Tuesday has been “very frustrating” for himself and the farmers in the surrounding area.

Maldon and Burnham Standard: Photo: Ben FisherPhoto: Ben Fisher

He said: “Thankfully the damage has been relatively minimal as we had already harvested the crops.

“Had the emergency services not pulled their finger out, it could have been a lot worse.

“We are now working very closing with the Dengie Farmwatch group and the Police have really upped their game to take these incidents seriously.

“They are now realising these things aren’t just a case of one person getting onto the land with their dogs, they are criminals.

“I have to also thank some other farmers around me, Alan Ponder and Edward Hull who were very helpful to us after what happened."

A police spokesman said: “We were called with reports of hare coursing on land off Hall Road, Southminster, at around 9.15pm on Tuesday 6 August.

“The call followed information that a field was alight after two men were scene in the area.

“We attended but were unable to find the men described.

“Inquiries are ongoing.”

If you have any information about this incident, call 101.