Police today crushed a car seized from hare coursers in the Fens.

They have held the Vauxhall Astra since catching three men hare coursing at Six Mile Bottom, Cambs, on August 20.

The trio - aged 51, 42 and 19 - had travelled up to Cambridgeshire from East Sussex.

JPs ordered the vehicle to be destroyed, when they heard the case lastg month.

Ely magistrates also fined both the older men �300, ordered them to pay �85 costs and a �15 victim surcharge. Both were also given a six month driving ban. The 19-year-old was fined �100 and ordered to pay �100 costs and �15 victim surcharge. He was given a three month driving ban.

All three admitted illegal hare-coursing.

PC Robin Smith said: 'These three men had come up to the county on August 20 to hare course on private land.

'We take this type of crime very seriously and this should send out a strong message that anyone who comes to Cambridgeshire to hare course is in danger of having their car seized and subsequently crushed.'

Cambridgeshire police has seized 15 vehicles this winter.

Rough coursers favour the Fens because its flat, open fields are an ideal hunting ground for greyhounds and lurchers.

But the sport was banned along with fox and deer hunting by the 2004 Hunting Act.