FOUR members of the Minehead Harriers - including one of the joint masters, Sid Westcott - are facing prosecution for alleged breaches of the Hunting Act. A fifth is alleged to have committed a public order offence. The action is being brought in a private prosecution by the League Against Cruel Sports, which confirmed that the papers had been served on the hunt members this week. The alleged offences relate to an incident in January this year but it is not known where. The evidence on which the action is based is understood to have been gathered by league monitors. Mr Westcott, who is in his early 70s, is joint master with Caroline Clifford and Ian Baker of a hunt that has its roots in the 1890s. It has kennels in Wootton Courtenay and in the season holds meets twice a week. Mrs Clifford told the Free Press on Wednesday: "The League Against Cruel Sports has produced footage which the police and the Crown Prosecution Service have seen. "They saw no evidence to bring a prosecution against us. We were hunting within the law as we always do." The action is the third private prosecution to be brought by the league. In August 2006 it brought its first successful prosecution against Tony Wright, a huntsman with the Exmoor Foxhounds. And in June this year Quantock Staghounds officials Richard Down and Adrian Pillivant were also found guilty of breaching the Hunting Act.