A former High Sheriff of Wiltshire is to appear at the crown court to be sentenced for safety failings on his farm estate.

Sir Charles Hobhouse, 60, of Monkton Farleigh, has pleaded guilty to two offences of failing to discharge a duty under the Health and Safety and Work Act 1974.

He spoke only to confirm his personal details and enter guilty pleas during a short hearing at Taunton Crown Court on Wednesday, May 3. He is on unconditional bail.

Judge Paul Cook adjourned the case at a date to be fixed. Hobhouse is due to appear at Bristol Crown Court on Thursday, June 8 for sentencing.

The two charges relate to offences in June and August 2021 at his Manor Farm estate at Monkton Farleigh, near Bradford on Avon.

The first states that on June 5, 2021, Hobhouse, as a self-employed person running a farming business that includes the keeping and breeding of cattle, failed to ensure the health and safety of three people not in his employment by failing to ensure they were not exposed to injury risk arising from the use of public rights of way in the Monkton Farleigh Estate.

The second charge states a second failure to a fourth person not in his employment on August 19, 2021.

Hobhouse, of Manor House, Monkton Farleigh Estate, was represented in court by Mr Malcolm Galloway.

He was High Sheriff of Wiltshire in 2021/22 and is chairman of the Wiltshire Branch Committee of the Country Landowners Association.