A horse owner had to hand over £562 to get her animal back after vandals destroyed a fence, letting him escape from his field.

Police were told at about 5.30am on Sunday that a horse had escaped from a field in Headcorn and was loose in the car park near Sainbury’s.

Despite the animal being freeze marked, which identified Sally-Ann Bulow as his owner, she was not notified until 8.30am.

Police said they would contact her later in the day to say when the horse, Jay, would be returned.

Mrs Bulow, 38, of Poyntell Road, Staplehurst, was called several hours later to say she had to pay £562 cash.

Jay was returned to her just six hours after he escaped, after she had produced the money.

Mrs Bulow said: “I just didn’t understand what was going on. I couldn’t believe it could cost that much.”

Maidstone police borough commander, Ch Insp David Pascoe, said Kent Police had to draft in external agencies to deal with matters like this.

He added: “These agencies are commercial ventures and charge for their services. To ensure that these charges are not met by the taxpayer, this cost is passed on to the individuals who own the property.

“In this case, the charge was made for housing and supervising the horse, while police were free in the meantime to deal with other incidents.”

But Mrs Bulow said: “It is just ridiculous, even if you said £100 for transporting him there, £100 for keeping him for a couple of hours and £100 for bringing him back it would still be expensive. This is just excessive. It is penalising the victims.”