Anti-salmon farming activist handed £83k legal bill by Mowi
Fish farmer has no chance of being paid, says Don Staniford
Veteran anti-salmon farming activist Don Staniford is facing a bill of almost £83,000 for costs incurred over three years by Mowi Scotland in its successful effort to win an interdict (injunction) against the campaigner.
But the cash-strapped campaigner told Fish Farming Expert that the company has more chance of getting blood out of a stone than receiving payment.
The bill for £82,761.15 largely comprises charges for services provided by Mowi’s solicitor, Aberdein Considine, and payments to advocate Jonathan Barne KC, who represented the fish farmer in Staniford’s appeal against the interdict imposed by Oban Sheriff Court.
As well as banning Staniford from climbing on to the walkways of salmon pens, the original interdict ordered him to stay 15 metres from Mowi property or from flying drones over farms. Barne agreed to the scrapping of the 15-metre exclusion zone and the ban on flying drones – which Staniford said he never did – during Staniford’s appeal at the Sheriff Appeal Court in Edinburgh on February 1 last year.
Court of Session
Staniford was also represented by a KC, John Campbell, although it is understood Staniford’s legal team were prepared to provide their services for free if Staniford couldn’t pay. Staniford’s crowdfunding appeal to meet costs later failed to reach its target.
The activist’s efforts to overturn Mowi’s interdict reached the end of the road at a hearing in the Extra Division of the Inner House of the Court of Session, Scotland’s supreme civil court, in November. Staniford failed to secure leave for a new appeal and was also ordered to pay Mowi’s costs.
Asked whether he had the money to meet the bill, Staniford said: “Mowi is pissing in the wind. Mowi has more chance of getting blood out of a stone.”
