A Co. Antrim building contractor who admitted destroying a historical monument has been fined £50,000.
In the first prosecution of its kind in the north, Judge Patrick Lynch KC told Henry James Price on Wednesday that, while the case did not cross the threshold for a jail sentence, nevertheless there had to be a deterrent element to dissuade others who “maybe tempted to play fast and lose” with legislation protecting other protected monuments.
Imposing the £50,000 at Craigavon Crown Court, the judge said he was giving Mr Price credit for his guilty pleas and clear record, warning that had he not admitted his guilt the fine would have been £75,000.
Last month Mr Price, from the Glenavy Road in Lisburn and who is the director of JH Price and Sons Ltd, entered a guilty plea that he wilfully destroyed or damaged a protected monument, namely lime kilns at Moneybroom, on a date unknown between 1 and 16 April 2021, “knowing that it was a protected monument and intending to damage or destroy the monument or being reckless whether it would be damaged or destroyed.”
Outlining how the kilns were built in the late 19th century to produce lime for the agricultural and construction industries Judge Lynch told the court how Price, who lives nearby and already owned adjoining land, bought the site for £270,000 in June 2019.
In August 2020 he lodged an Enablement Development PAD application with the council in order to secure the site and potentially develop a small portion of it but the application was beset by delays.
The court heard that a chartered architect estimated it would have cost around £630,000 to restore the kilns to their original condition and as a protected monument, there would have been grants of up to £50,000 available.
In April 2021 however, a site visit revealed that the kilns had been completely destroyed and when Mr Price was interviewed in September that year, he admitted ordering his employees to clear them.
Judge Lynch said the builder told police how there had been significant anti-social behaviour at the site “particularly at night and he was afraid of someone getting killed” and while he did apologise for his actions “he felt they were structurally dangerous.”
In his plea in mitigation, defence counsel Michael Boyd emphasised that Mr Price, a father and grandfather who runs a farm as well as a successful house building firm, “accepts without reservation that he made a grave error, and that the demolition of the lime kilns should never have taken place.”
“The loss to the community by virtue of the demolition of the lime kilns is fully accepted and acknowledged,” said the barrister but he added that “nevertheless, the point must also be made that the integrity of the kilns was not jealously guarded by the Department over the years” with a lack of funding or investment and no plan to rectify the kilns.
Mr Boyd told the court Mr Price “was genuinely concerned that it was only a matter of time before one of the persons drinking and socialising on the site was seriously injured” and the offence have resulted in him losing out financially in that he had lost his single farm payment, he has spent around £50,000 to secure the site and replant trees and “by virtue of his conduct it is now simply not possible for the defendant to develop the site in any way that would generate any profit - he has closed that particular avenue off for good.”
Highlighting that “this is the first prosecution in NI for this offence,” Judge Lynch explained that in considering the appropriate sentence his view was that Mr Price’s culpability was high given the fact he knew the kilns were protected yet he still opted to cause “irreparable damage” to them.
As regards the value of the monument the judge said that was a subjective matter but added that it was the only kiln of it’s type in NI and according to reports it had been “an almost unique example of this type of industrial architecture.”
Judge Lynch said it was also right and as Mr Boyd had pointed out, the kilns were not visible from the road, they were not a tourist attraction that contributed to the local economy and with no plan of investment or reparation works, they would eventually have fallen apart by themselves.
Imposing the £50,000 fine, the Jude allowed the defendant six months to pay.