A FATHER and daughter who owe more than £46,000 after being convicted of neglecting cattle have sold their farm.

Francis Beavis, 68, appeared at Cheltenham Magistrates' Court after he failed to pay the balance of his £7,063.34 fine.

He was supposed to be joined by 44-year-old daughter Annika, who was due to explain why she still had £39,389.07 outstanding, but she didn't turn up.

Bonnie Styles, solicitor for Gloucestershire County Council, representing its Trading Standards, which had pursued the pair's prosecutions, said Hill Farm, near Bishop's Cleeve, had been sold by the bank after mortgage payments were not made.

"We have had this on authority from the bank's solicitor," she said.

"The land has now been sold in excess of £1 million, £800,000 of which is owed to the bank."

District judge Martin Brown ordered Beavis to pay his outstanding amount within 28 days.

He said: "I am anticipating given that the sale of your property is proceeding, you will be able to pay that money on that date.

"By the end of that period, if you haven't notified us if the money has not come through a warrant will be issued."

Beavis and his daughter, who owned Hill Farm in Oxenton, near Bishop's Cleeve, had both been jailed for six months on separate occasions after Trading Standards discovered widespread neglect of cattle on the site.

Both were also banned from keeping cattle.

Annika Beavis was jailed last April after cows were found drinking from a pond in which another cow lay dead. The discovery was just the latest in a long history of family neglect.

She admitted keeping cattle while disqualified and causing unnecessary suffering to a calf and two other cows.

She had already admitted three charges of neglecting her cattle and one of failing to test them for tuberculosis in February last year.

She had been convicted of 10 similar offences in March 2008.

Her fines payment case was adjourned until April 19, when she is due to appear reappear at Cheltenham. She has paid just £160 of the total amount to date.

Francis Beavis was issued with the current fine in August last year for keeping animals while disqualified. He was previously jailed in June 2007. He has only paid £60.

The pair will now live in Crown Drive in Bishop's Cleeve.

Annika Beavis became trustee of Hill Farm after her parents, Inger and Francis, were banned from keeping animals.