- Countryside box is set on fire in late-night attack in St Ouen
- What are honesty boxes? Read more below
- Are you always honest when it comes to paying for your produce? Take part in our poll
A JERSEY farming family have been left out of pocket after they claim that vandals set fire to one of their rural honesty boxes in a late-night attack.
It is the second time in 12 months that Le Feuvre Farms have had their roadside stall at Mont Matthieu in St Ouen targeted.
Last summer thieves broke into the collection box with a crowbar and stole about £40.
- An honesty box is a method of charging for a product such as home-grown produce and flowers, which relies upon each visitor paying at a box using the honour system.
- Such boxes are typically used in rural areas where the low number of customers and other visitors, along with the low quantity and/or value of the products on offer, means that an attendant would not bring a positive return on investment
- Honesty boxes are dotted around many rural roads in many of the parishes in Jersey. [/breakout]
Powell Le Feuvre, who works for the family-run business, said since that incident, they have chosen not to keep any stock or money in their honesty boxes overnight for fear that it may be stolen.
And on Saturday morning the farmer, who was on his rounds delivering various produce to their numerous roadside stalls, discovered the charred remains of their box in St Ouen’s Bay.
Mr Le Feuvre, who had emptied the stall on Friday evening, said: ‘The fire was started in three corners of the box and it nearly spread to the hedge as well.
‘I think it must have been done by kids or someone messing around.
‘It has certainly been done deliberately.
‘Somebody has gone there, started the fire and then driven off.
‘This box is a bit out of the way, so I haven’t heard anything from anyone who lives nearby.
‘It is disheartening for us because there is so much time, effort and money put in to getting the boxes ready and painting them. The timber is not cheap.’
The farmer estimates that the damage to the box, in which they sell Jersey Royals, main-crop potatoes and other vegetables, will cost the business up to £300.
He added that he had not called the Fire and Rescue Service because the fire was already out by the time he found it, and he had not yet notified the police.
Mr Le Feuvre said his family were able to replace the damaged box within three hours.
Earlier this year several farmers in the Island spoke out against thefts from honesty boxes, some saying it happens on an almost daily basis.
Honesty boxes are a traditional part of the Island’s culture and have been for many years.
However because of the extraction of the middle man between produce and the public, the trust is often corrupted by theft, arson and misuse of the boxes:
- In 2009 a resident from the north of the Island reported that people were taking produce from his honesty box without paying. The final straw for him was the discovery that the money box had been forced open using a crowbar in the early hours of the morning.
- Petty theft like this is still a common problem amongst honesty boxes in Jersey, with a recent theft being reported from the same St Ouen box that was torched earlier this weekend.
- Meanwhile, a number of other honesty boxes were torched on Saturday evening in St John, St Peter and St Ouen, resulting in a loss of both produce and money.
- Many owners have now been forced to keep no produce or money in their honesty boxes overnight so to deter thieves.
