- By Simon Hare
- BBC News, Derby
Footage exhibits man abseiling down cliff to take peregrine eggs
A person who took peregrine falcon eggs from a nest by abseiling down a quarry cliff face has been jailed for 18 weeks.
Christopher Wheeldon, of Lime Grove, Darley Dale, Derbyshire, took the eggs at Bolsover Moor Quarry, within the county on 23 April final 12 months.
The eggs are sometimes taken to order for the center japanese avian market and may fetch hundreds of kilos.
District Judge Stephen Flint stated the defendant’s actions have been “deplorable”.
Southern Derbyshire Magistrates Court’ heard on Monday {that a} hidden wildlife digicam, which was monitoring the nest, captured Wheeldon abseiling down the quarry face to succeed in and take the eggs.
The court docket heard he had been helped by a second person, as he’s heard asking somebody to assist pull him again up, however no-one else was arrested.
Derbyshire Police recognised Wheeldon after officers have been proven the footage by investigators from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).
The footage exhibits an grownup fowl guarding a nest – thought to include three eggs – after which fleeing in panic and calling out in misery as Wheeldon abseils down.
Christopher Wheeldon was jailed at Southern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court on Monday
The RSPB consider the eggs would have been hatched out in an incubator earlier than the birds have been offered, most likely overseas, as captive reared, which is authorized.
RSPB investigator Tom Grose stated: “Effectively these are birds which can be laundered. It is one thing we have now seen on an annual foundation, nests failing in suspicious circumstances and that is the third case we have now captured on digicam in the previous couple of years.”
Defence solicitor Clare James stated Wheeldon had “no reply” for his actions.
Wheeldon, 34, admitted at a earlier listening to to disturbing the nest of a protected wild fowl and taking eggs.
A hidden digicam monitoring the nest caught Wheeldon within the act
He had additionally admitted failing to give up to police and court docket bail for an earlier look and a string of shoplifting offences.
Sentencing, the district choose stated: “Seemingly, even the birds aren’t past your thieving grasp. You could conceive of those as simply eggs however they’re protected. This was a deplorable factor to do.”
He additionally ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the tools Wheeldon had used to take the eggs.
PC Emma Swales, from the Derbyshire Police rural crime group, stated: “It’s not fairly often we get a conviction, not to mention a sentence, so it is very optimistic for us. Derbyshire is a hotspot for this.”
