Groundbreaking acquittal of farmer in case concerning violation of EU regulations on fertilizers and illegal pesticides
A farmer has been completely acquitted of charges with a claim for a fine of DKK 738,000 for the purchase of unregistered fertilizer and illegal pesticides. The prosecution has now dropped the case before it went before a judge. Thus, the abandonment is number 96 in a series of waivers of prosecution and acquittals, which the lawyers at the law firm Sønderby Legal have obtained in the past year and a half for companies associated with agriculture.
Christian Kjær Olsen, business lawyer at Sønderby Legal, states:
“It is a tremendous mental strain to stand before a judge as an innocent defendant. In our opinion, this is contrary to the EU legal principle of the rule of law. Standing before a judge is an unpredictable and unnecessary violation in itself for innocent companies. Here, acquittals in themselves are not sufficient for the innocent companies. At Sønderby Legal, we therefore go relentlessly for waivers of prosecution and abandonment of charges, so that the cases never reach the door of a courtroom. This saves the court system an unnecessary waste of resources, and most importantly, it saves companies time and worries. We use the EU legal principle of the rule of law as a guideline”, states Christian Kjær Olsen, who was the one who found the crucial evidence and got the farmer acquitted.
With EU law as a guideline
It is important for agriculture – and all of us who make a living by providing services to it – that agriculture is not made a scapegoat for these cases without reason. Not only do the accused farmers risk being fined and having their KO support deducted. It is the farmers’ reputation that is at stake when some farmers are alleged to have bought unregistered fertilizer from abroad and spread it on their fields to circumvent the companies’ quotas.
It is our task – with EU law as a guideline – to ensure that as few of these cases as possible are brought before a judge. It would have been really bad for all farmers if a story had come out of it – if the farmer had been convicted. It would have created a really negative image.
Part of a larger case complex
The case, which has stretched over a long period of years, stems from a larger case complex, after the East Jutland Police carried out a search at an East Jutland importer of fertilizer and pesticides, which was not tax registered. However, the police found an extensive import of ”black fertilizer” and illegal pesticides from Germany, which the police believed had been sold to Danish farmers hidden in a double bookkeeping.
“When we received the case, it was clear that there were major uncertainties in several parts of the chain of evidence. In particular, the chain jumped off in the last link, where the goods were to be transferred to the farmers”, says Christian Kjær Olsen, who together with the accused’s crop advisor had to go through several moving boxes with binders filled with shadow invoices, handwritten delivery notes and internal registers at Aarhus Police Station. A somewhat atypical task for a business lawyer.
During corona, we assessed that far too many criminal cases are being brought against agriculture, but we could not prove it at the time. In corona times, it was primarily criminal cases that could be dealt with effectively in the courts. Therefore, we decided to see if we could get the proof. We believe that we have done so, and could well hope that someone would raise the topic politically. We ourselves have an interest in reducing the number of criminal cases against our clients.
