A furious farmer filmed his confrontation with a man on a scrambler on a North Wales mountainside. Gareth Wyn Jones filmed the encounter on the hills above his farm on Llanfairfechan and posted footage of the stand-off on social media.
The scrambler claimed he had been given permission to ride there by a landowner, but Mr Jones told him he was disturbing the livestock.
In the footage Mr Jones said he had just had a phone call to say that there was somebody on the Carneddau, on a motorbike..
Mr Jones said: “After a little bit of searching I did find the individual on the bike and I have asked him nicely to vacate the mountain.
“I have got a funny feeling he’s not going to listen. So I am going to stick around quietly and just watch and wait.”
Gareth Wyn Jones on his family farm in Llanfairfechan(Image: Ian Cooper/North Wales Live)
Mr Jones is then filmed approaching the biker who can be seen standing beside his bike on moorland. Mr Jones said: “What did I tell you? Do you think I am stupid? I gave you an option to go home. You are up here. You are disturbing livestock.”
The scrambler insists that he was given permission by a woman to ride there and has it on video and offers to show Mr Jones the footage on his phone.
It is illegal to use off-road vehicles like scramblers in the open countryside. They can be used on private land but only with express permission of the landowner.
Mr Jones then tells him: “I have just spoken to her. Get this bike off this mountain. Right now. I am telling you, before I take this further and get the police involved,” says Mr Jones.
The scrambler again says he has a video of the permission given. Mr Jones says send it to me and the rider says he will, but Mr Jones adds “and that’s got no inclination about what I told you. What did I tell you.”
But the scrambler then claimed: “You said I could come up here if I have permission from a farmer.”
“No I did not – I said you could be up here if you are in with the farmers, working with the farmers. You have no permission from anybody,” Mr Jones claimed, as he again asks the biker to leave.
Mr Jones then tells him that the noise of off-road bikes would “disturb” the livestock and the Carneddau ponies who roam the mountainside.
After the stand-off Mr Jones explains that mountains are effectively like a “factory” for farmers and “an intricate part of what we do up here”.
“So when somebody comes up here on a very noisy scrambler like that. It is going to disturb the sheep, it is going to disturb the ponies,” he added.
North Wales Police were approached for comment on the incident.