Television chef Clarissa Dickson-Wright escaped punishment yesterday after she admitted being a spectator at an hare coursing event.
Ms Dickson-Wright and the leading race horse trainer Sir Mark Prescott joined hundreds of hunt supporters for two days of the traditional field sport held on farmland near Malton, North Yorkshire, in March 2007.
Coursing, in which hares are driven by beaters into a field to be chased by greyhounds, was outlawed under the Hunting Act 2004.
Many former participants now attend what have become known as greyhound field trials - a similar activity in which the dogs are muzzled in an attempt to avoid prosecution under the new legislation.
The North Yorkshire event was secretly filmed by animal rights activists and the case against Ms Dickson-Wright,