A FEUD between two farming brothers led to one damaging equipment belonging to the other, a court heard.

Jonathon Griffin, 42, of Church Farm, Batcombe, was handed a 12-month suspended prison sentence after causing £6,793 of damage to seven tractors and a milking parlour, and £614 of damage to a digger kept at North Dorset farms.

Prosecutor Clifford Grier told the court that "bad feeling" had developed on Griffin's part after Skinners Farm in Stoke Way, Blandford, was divided between Griffin's older brother David and their mother for tax purposes after their father died.

The case involved several years of work by police which involved re-examining dozens of crimes going back more than a decade before PC Pete Moore of Sherborne Police was able to gather enough evidence to arrest Griffin.

The first of the crimes took place in 2002 when seven tractors and a milking parlour were damaged at Southley Farm, Fifehead St Quintin, Sturminster Newton.

Griffin also damaged a Hitachi digger at a farm formerly known as Rideouts Farm in Stoke Wake in 2006, also owned by his 52-year-old brother David.

He was found guilty of two counts of criminal damage by a jury at Bournemouth Crown Court on July 17 this year.

Defending, John Blandford said that the damage caused to the digger was not the type that would have caused anyone driving it to "career out of control". Character witnesses for Griffin at his trial described him as "a devoted family man" and a person with a "good work ethic" said Mr Blandford.

Yesterday Griffin was also ordered to complete 280 hours of unpaid work in the community and ordered to pay £1,500 court costs.

Speaking afterwards, PC Moore, from Sherborne Safer Neighbourhood Team, said: "The farming community in which Griffin played such a big part has been significantly affected by his actions.

"Everyone was frightened that they themselves would become victims of damage if they crossed Griffin.

"This has been an unusual and protracted enquiry finally now concluded to the relief of the victim and witnesses, all of whom are farmers themselves and feel that some justice has been done."