Mowi seeks recovery of full legal costs from anti-salmon activist.
Anti-salmon farming activist Don Staniford is facing a legal bill of £82,761.15, after a three-year legal battle with Mowi Scotland over an interdict (injunction) sought by the company.
The sum includes solicitor fees charged by Aberdein Considine, as well as payments to Jonathan Barne KC, who represented Mowi in Staniford’s appeal against restrictions imposed by Oban Sheriff Court. The original interdict barred Staniford from climbing on Mowi salmon pens and required him to remain 15 metres from company property and refrain from flying drones over its farms.
During a hearing at the Sheriff Appeal Court in Edinburgh in February 2023, the 15-metre exclusion zone and drone ban were dropped. However, the core interdict restricting physical access to Mowi’s pens was upheld.
Staniford’s legal challenge ultimately concluded in November 2024, when the Inner House of the Court of Session denied him leave to pursue a further appeal and ordered him to pay Mowi’s costs.