HAMPSHIRE police have joined forces with colleagues in two other counties in a bid to combat poaching and hare coursing.

Officers in Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset are targeting gangs engaged in rural crime, including those who damage fragile countryside and farmland by driving off-road vehicles illegally.

Posting on social media Ringwood Cops said offenders were killing animals for fun with dogs and catapults, ignoring the pain and suffering caused.

They added: "If you witness a crime in progress phone 999 with the location, vehicle offender description or identity.

"If you know someone involved in hare coursing, poaching or the destruction of fragile landscapes call your local policing or rural crime team on 101in confidence so we can protect vulnerable wildlife, countryside and rural communities from exploitation."

Last year two men were each fined more than £1,000 after being convicted of poaching in the New Forest.

They were prosecuted after police received reports that hare coursing was taking place near the Lower Bisterne Farm Estate in Ringwood.

Two 29-year-old men from Poole, Stephen Cooper, of Rockley Road, and Shane Aaron Manyweathers, 29, of Frobisher Avenue, appeared at Southampton Magistrates' Court.

They were both convicted of poaching and each ordered to pay a fine of £1,050.

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