Recent prosecutions

The following is a selection of some of the more interesting or important cases that have appeared before the courts recently.

• Amphibians
• Badgers
• Bats
• Birds
• CITES specimens
• Eggs
• Habitats
• General

Amphibians

Great Crested Newts

In June 2007, Taylor Woodrow Developments Limited based in Solihull, were fined £2,000 with £87 costs after pleading guilty to damaging or destroying a resting place of great crested newts at a development site in Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex following a hearing at Harlow Magistrates Court.

The company were aware of the legally protected newts on their site and had been granted a licence by Natural England to enable ecologists to capture the newts to allow the development to go ahead. The captured newts were placed in a temporary reserve while new ponds were being created for them nearby. Once the ponds were suitable for the newts to live in they, and the temporary reserve, were to be joined to form a larger reserve.

However, in December 2006 a manager from the company instructed contractors to excavate the new ponds. The contractors drove machinery over special fencing which protected the newt reserve and placed soil from the excavation on top of where the newts had been released.

Wildlife Management Advisers from Natural England and the Force Wildlife Crime Officer for Essex Police visited the site after being informed by an ecologist working for the company. The visit confirmed a breach of the law and led to the successful prosecution.

On 18 January 2007, Gerald McHugh and McHugh Construction pleaded guilty to offences under Section 9 (4)(a) Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 for intentionally or recklessly damaging or destroying a structure or place used by a Great Crested Newt for shelter or protection. And, under Section 39(1)(d) Conservation (Natural Habitat) Regulations 1994, for damaging or destroying a breeding site or resting place of a European Protected Species, namely a Great Crested Newt. Gerald McHugh was fined £700 on each of his two offences. McHugh Construction was fined £3500 on each of its two offences.

In late 2004 McHugh construction purchased a plot of land with a building on and a paddock at the rear of the plot, at the village of Nether Broughton near Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire. In this paddock but near to the rear of the plot was a pond that was known by neighbours to have Great Crested Newts in. McHugh intended to build two executive houses on the plot and use the paddock has gardens.

In early 2005 work started on the plot and as a result of information from a neighbour through, the then English Nature, The local wildlife crime officer attended the plot with a local Newt expert. Mr McHugh was seen and advised he would need an ecological survey and probably a Defra licence to carry out work as it was possible Great Crested Newts were present. McHugh did so and the survey clearly showed the presence of Great Crested Newts. The survey informed him that work could not continue except under guidance and with a licence.

In the Spring of 2006 the site was visited again by the police who noted that a large amount of building and clearance work had been carried out around the pond, basically damaging the habitat. A water expert from the Environment Agency carried out a water quality survey. This showed the pond was now unable to sustain any life.

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Badger cases

In November 2007 Craig Morrison of Dalry became the first person in Scotland to be convicted of badger baiting after he allowed his dog to attack two young badgers in a sett and maul them to death.

He was ordered by, Kilmarnock Sheriff Court, to complete 175 hours of community service for the attack on 29 March. He was also ordered to pay £1,200 to the SSPCA in compensation and banned from keeping dogs for two years. In addition he was told to hand over hunting equipment he owned which included a tracking device that is used on dogs. Morrison previously admitted a total of three charges including one of cruelly ill-treating badgers by sending dogs into a sett.

Sheriff Seith Ireland said: "I must pass a sentence that punishes you and sends a message. The courts must do what they can to ensure that the law is obeyed."

On 27th June 2006 William Thomson, (43), from Dufftown appeared at Elgin Sheriff Court where he pled guilty to three charges under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 section 3(c), blocking a badger sett. His plea of not guilty to attempting to kill badgers was accepted. Thomson was fined £600 pound on each charge, £1800 in total.

On 2 February 2006 Craig Trevelyan, 32, a sergeant with the Royal Welch Fusiliers, was jailed for 6 months at Coleford Magistrates Court, Gloucestershire. He was found guilty of three charges under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992, wilfully killing a badger, digging for a badger and interfering with a badger sett causing damage to it. He was part of a gang that dug a badger out of its sett at Lydney in the Forest of Dean. They then set dogs upon the badger, before shooting it through the head.

Trevelyan was sentenced to six months for each charge to run concurrently. He was ordered to forfeit any weapon used in the offence and banned from keeping dogs for seven years. His car was also confiscated and he was banned from driving for 12 months.

Bat cases

In October 2007 a man was fined £1,000 for destroying the roost of the pipistrelle and the brown long eared bat by Carmarthenshire Magistrates. The defendant was also ordered to pay £500 court costs, after pleading guilty to breaching the Conservation (Natural Habitats) Regulations 1994 and the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

A spokes-person from CCW said that “CCW is eager to work closely with the building industry and developers to achieve a balance between the interests of development and the protection of important species, and to avoid criminal offences taking place. However, we are grateful to the Crown Prosecution Service for pursuing this case and securing a successful outcome.”

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Bird cases

Herring gull killed

In May 2006 a Devon district councillor was found guilty of intentionally killing a wild bird, contrary to section 1(1)a of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Dr Brian Boughton of Dartmouth was fined £400.00 and given a one years conditional discharge after the case was brought against him by the RSPCA.

Dr Boughton denied illegally killing a herring gull that was nesting in his roof. He had obtained a copy of a Defra general licence which allows the public to kill some wild birds in certain circumstances. Dr Boughton shot the gull with and air-rifle after it defecated in his wife’s salad. He then hung the dead gull from a tree to act as a deterrent to other gulls. The RSPCA argued in court that he had not dispatched the herring gull within the terms of the licence but had shot it out of sheer annoyance.

(Please note that General Licences in Scotland are worded differently to English licences and Welsh licences, and may be open to different interpretation by the courts).

On 26th July 2005 at Wirral Youth Court a 17 year old youth pleaded guilty to the charges of two barn owls and reckless disturbance of barn owls.

In July 2004, staff working at Royden Park, Frankby, Merseyside found that a clock tower and adjacent coach house there had been broken into. However, nothing appeared to have been stolen. The Clock Tower is known to be a regular nest site for barn owls and three chicks had in fact been ringed a month earlier. Merseyside Police Wildlife Officers found the nest to be empty and it became apparent the chicks had been taken.

A Police crime scene investigator attended and recovered a drop of blood that had been left by the offenders.

Two days after the offence a member of the public saw a group of youths with two young barn owls and took possession of them because he thought they were being mistreated. The youths told him they were from Royden Park and that they had removed BTO rings from them. The owlets were successfully returned to the nest and their parents resumed feeding them. It is believed a third, older chick, flew out of the nest at the time of the raid.

In January 2005, the defendant was arrested on suspicion of taking the two barn owls. His DNA was matched to the drop of blood found after the raid. He admitted that he had broken into the clock tower, but at first denied any knowledge of the barn owls. He eventually pleaded guilty to the offences and was sentenced to a 6-month referral order and ordered to pay £300 costs. The court was told that this was “an audacious and determined attack on the nest.” This is believed to the first time human DNA left at the scene has led to a successful prosecution for an offence of this nature.

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CITES specimens

In June 2007, Keith Sweetman of Little Linford in Buckinghamshire pleaded guilty to two charges under Regulation 8 of COTES relating to the sale of two Moluccan cockatoos to a lady in Lincolnshire. Enquiries revealed anomalies with the Article 10 certificates Mr Sweetman used to sell the birds – one of which was a photocopy and therefore invalid – and put in doubt the individual identification of both birds. Mr Sweetman was given a conditional discharge for six months on each charge and ordered to pay £120 costs and £400 compensation to the buyer.

In July 2006 Antique dealer Thomas Balmain of Bedlington in Northumbria was charged, under the provisions of Regulation 8 of COTES, with illegally selling two Sperm Whale teeth and illegally keeping for sale three pieces of elephant ivory worked into a toothpick set, an African head and a Japanese figure. This was following information supplied by the National Wildlife Crime Unit that Mr Balmain was advertising ‘rare Victorian whale teeth’ for sale on eBay. It was subsequently ascertained that Mr Balmain had sold the two Sperm whale teeth to buyer in the USA. He pleaded guilty to all charges and was fined a total of £660 and ordered to pay £75 costs.

In January 2006, Dr Sian Lim, an avid orchid enthusiast from London, was charged with 13 counts of smuggling a total of 126 rare orchids (including aphiopedilum rothschildianum, sanderianum and gigantifolim) into the UK. Although pleading guilty to all charges, Dr Lim claimed he did not import for commercial purposes himself, and the majority of the plants were imported on behalf of others. The Judge, however, decided he was acting commercially and sentenced Dr Lim to four months imprisonment on each of 11 counts and three months on each of the two remaining counts – the sentences to run concurrently and with a recommendation he serves at least two months. This is the first custodial sentence for a CITES orchid smuggling case in the UK.

In July 2007 a further hearing ordered Lim to pay £110,331, the proceeds of his trade. He was also ordered to pay £15,000 in costs, including towards research by experts at Kew Gardens

In January 2002 Raymond Humphrey was found guilty of 22 offences relating to the smuggling and illegal trade in endangered species. He was sentenced to six and a half years in prison with a recommendation that he serve at least two thirds before release. This is the most significant wildlife case ever brought before the courts in the UK, and resulted in the longest prison sentence handed out so far. In addition, one of Humphrey's accomplices, Peara Jungthirapanich, received a sentence of 22 months for his part in the operation.

A joint police and customs investigation, started in 1997, uncovered evidence that Humphrey was involved in the illegal smuggling of birds of prey from Thailand. Customs intercepted Humphrey and two accomplices at Heathrow airport in July 2000 and discovered two suitcases containing 23 birds of prey. The birds had their legs taped together and were stuffed into blue plastic tubes drilled with air holes, and with pieces of chopsticks at either end to stop the bird getting out. Six of the birds were already dead and another died the following day. A warrant carried out at Humphrey's address the next day revealed further endangered species which were believed to have been smuggled into the country.

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Eggs

Egg Collecting

On 20 January 2005, Matthew Gonshaw from London was sent to prison for six months for possession of 578 birds eggs many from endangered species. He was also found guilty for the taking of a number of eggs including Red Kite, Barn Owl and Black Tailed Godwit eggs. Gonshaw was only released from prison on Friday 14 January 2005 after serving a four month sentence in Scotland for egg collecting.

This was first imprisonment in Scotland of an individual under the re-enforced legislation. In this instance he was fined £5000 and imprisoned for 4 months after having been found guilty of taking Artic Tern eggs, possessing 30 other eggs and having material with him capable of being used to steal eggs.

In this most recent case the collection of 578 eggs was recovered once he had been sentenced in Scotland. It was then possible to go ahead and charge Gonshaw with further offences. This is Gonshaw’s third custodial sentence for egg collecting offences having served a three month sentence in April 2002.

Operation Easter: egg collectors

Since 1997 Tayside Police have been co-ordinating a nationwide operation targeted at the most determined egg collectors known to the police and RSPB. A considerable file has been amassed on over 100 egg collectors; intelligence which the police try to use in a proactive manner to catch egg thieves in the act or to recover their collections. On 29 March 2002, osprey eggs believed to have been taken from a nest in Scotland were seized by police as part of Operation Easter. Ospreys are a controlled species - there are currently only 140 pairs in Scotland.

Convictions resulting from this operation include:

• Sheavils convicted in May 2001 regarding a collection of over 1200 eggs and fined £1500.
• Thompson convicted May 2001 for taking common sandpiper and chaffinch eggs and fined £3,100.
• Sheavils (again) convicted in June 2001 for possession of goshawk and goosander eggs. Sentenced to 4 months imprisonment - first person to be imprisoned under the CRoW Act 2000.

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Habitats

In January 2008, Wemmergill Moor Limited, based in North Yorkshire, were fined in total £50,000 by Durham Crown Court for causing damage to part of Lune Forest Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Durham, and ordered to pay Natural England’s full costs of £237,548.99.

Wemmergill Moor Ltd pleaded guilty to three offences relating to the construction of a new track, car park and associated drainage, plus other damage to another route, without obtaining the necessary permission. The works resulted in damage to over 4433 square metres of internationally important peatland habitat which is also home to birds such as merlin and golden plover.

The Court imposed a Restoration Order requiring Wemmergill Moor Ltd to remove the track and car park for the purposes of restoring that part of the SSSI towards its former condition prior to the offence being committed. The defendants also gave a formal undertaking to the Court to carry out, at their own cost, additional works to reduce the overall impact of works associated with another track within the SSSI and to block an area of man-made drains 40kms in length to help improve the condition of the moorland.

Natural England welcomed the Judge’s observation that the Court will act to protect important sites such as this moor.

In July 2004 a Cornish landowner was fined a total of £7,000 and ordered to pay combined costs of £7,834.68 after admitting causing damage to an internationally important wildlife site in a hearing at Bodmin Magistrates’ Court

The joint prosecution brought by English Nature and the Environment Agency resulted in a fine of £5,000 and costs of £6,169.43 being awarded to English Nature, and an additional fine of £2,000 and £1,665.25 costs to the Environment Agency. The court also ordered that the landowner carry out restoration work at their own expense.

The land which lies within the River Camel Valley and Tributaries Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). The Court heard how in October 2003, a contractor working on the defendants behalf removed gravel from the River Camel to resurface an access track and build up the height of the riverbank. Trees and other riverbank vegetation had been removed to gain access to the river. This damaged around 600 square meters of riverbed and riverbank habitat.

The river gravel provided habitat for the fish species bullhead and spring and winter salmon. The River Camel Valley and Tributaries SSSI is internationally important for supporting significant populations of these species. The removal of trees and other bank side vegetation has damaged two potential otter holt sites. The SSSI provides a stronghold for otters in the southwest of England.

English Nature applied to the court for a restoration order which was granted. This means the defendant has to restore the site at their own expense, under the supervision of both English Nature and the Environment Agency.

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General

Dolphin disturbance

In April 2008, Michael Jukes and Daniel Buck were both found guilty of recklessy or intentionally disturbing a dolphin at Sandgate in Kent. The solitary dolphin had become a tourist attraction at Sandgate and the defenadants had swum out to the dolphin after attending a party at a friend's house. Both admitting touching the dolphin but believed it had enjoyed swimming with them. 

In summing up Chairman of the Bench said that a number of experts had demonstrated the dolphins normal pattern of behaviour was disturbed.  Video evidence also showed the dolphin swimming towards the men head on and breaching the water, a sign of distress. Both men had refused to come out of the water even after the police ordered them out. Both were ordered to carry out 120 hours community service and ordered to pay £350 costs. 

A report on solitary dolphins and whales including recommendations for their protection

Traditional Chinese Medicines – Operation Charm

On 20 December 2006, a 53 year old South East London man was fined a total of £5,400 at Greenwich Magistrates Court for offering for sale specimens of endangered species. In July 2006, the Metropolitan Police Wildlife Crime Unit, as part of Operation Charm, executed a search warrant at a Traditional Chinese Medicine outlet in Deptford, South East London, where a number of products were seized. A further search was conducted at an outlet in Eltham and products seized and the shop owner arrested.

Mr Shunwei Ma, the owner of the Traditional Chinese Medicine outlets, pleaded guilty to 18 charges under the Control of Trade in Endangered Species (Enforcement) Regulations 1997 and was fined £300 on each. The offences related to products claiming ingredients derived from protected species including bear, seahorse, saiga antelope, musk deer and rare species of orchid and tree fern.

Operation Charm was re-launched in November 2006 as a partnership between the Metropolitan Police, Greater London Authority, IFAW, WWF-UK, ACAP and the David Shepherd Foundation. For more information please see www.operationcharm.org.