CRUEL farmer Francis Beavis has escaped a four-month jail spell by finally paying up a £7,000 court fine – 11 months after it was due.

The 68-year-old appeared at Cheltenham Magistrates' Court on Monday for a committal hearing after he continued to dodge paying the £7,123.34 he owed.

Magistrates gave the farmer just two hours to pay the amount in full and said he would be jailed if he failed to pay up.

Trading Standards, which brought the action against him, was notified Beavis had paid the fine by 3pm.

Beavis, of Crown Drive in Bishop's Cleeve, had come up with a string of excuses over the past year to avoid paying what he owed.

He claimed he was so broke he could only afford to pay in £15 installments.

After selling his £200,000 Hill Farm in January he was ordered to pay the full amount. But instead he splashed out on new land to the tune of £150,000.

Cheltenham Magistrates' Court heard in May that Beavis received money from Paddy Power who erected their "Hollywood" style sign on his land on Cleeve Hill during the Cheltenham Festival.

The pensioner had a string of animal cruelty convictions when he admitted breaching a ban on keeping animals and was fined £7,108 in August of last year.

He had admitted on five occasions in 2008 to breaching a court order disqualifying him from keeping cattle.

Beavis was jailed for six months in June 2007 after he mistreated a calf in his care so badly it had to be put down.

He and his wife Inger owned 600 acres of land in Gloucestershire. The pair were spared a jail term in 2006 after admitting 13 cruelty charges, including causing unnecessary suffering and allowing natural breeding likely to cause injury. They were banned from keeping livestock for 10 years and fined £56,550.

David Honey, group manager for Gloucestershire Trading Standards, said: "We're very pleased with this result. There were investigation and legal costs that were rightfully incurred by the Trading Standards service in bringing Mr Beavis to justice before the courts. It's right and proper that he and not the local council tax payers should foot the bill."

Beavis' daughter Annika is due in court on Monday to explain why she has not paid fines of £24,438.60 for similar animal cruelty charges.