A Derby-based property developer has been ordered to pay a total of £14,435.17 in a prosecution brought by Natural England for breaching the conditions of a European Protected Species Bat Mitigation Licence. On 4 September 2023 at Southern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court, Patrick Weekes, aged 55, of Radbourne Construction Limited, Vernongate, Derby, pleaded guilty to four […]

Defendants: Caer Construction (Directors Jan MILSOM and Mark POTTER) PC1154 Mark Powell the Natural Resources Wales seconded police officer successfully prosecuted Caer Construction Limited (a housing development company based largely within Monmouthshire) for Bat Offences on 26th July 2022. Directors Jan MILSOM and Mark POTTER carried out a renovation of a former primary school at […]

David Kerr, 74, was fined £740 for committing the offences when a building being demolished on an estate in Dunblane. Kerr admitted the offences at Stirling Sheriff Court on Monday 11th April 2022 and was fined £740. The incident happened on 12 June, 2020, when a building was being demolished on the Glassingall estate. Wildlife […]

Natural Resources Wales successfully prosecuted two developers from the Merthyr Tydfil area this week (8th March 2022). The Defendants pleaded guilty at Newport Magistrates Court to damaging a roost / resting place of Bats when they converted the Old Drill Hall, Pontmorlais West in Merthyr Tydfil. However, in doing so they failed to obtain the […]

A fine has been handed out to a man who deliberately destroyed a protected habitat so he could develop his property. The case followed an investigation by Kent Police’s Rural Task Force relating to a property in Headcorn. In December 2019, the offender sought planning permission for a barn conversion. As part of the planning […]

Threats to bats from ‘Urban Exploring’ trend 7th May 2021 The Bat Conservation Trust is aware that a rising trend known as ‘urban exploring’ in abandoned buildings and underground hideaways is illegally impacting on bats. Many bats live in the sorts of places that are now attracting a surge in hobby ‘explorers’, who go into […]

A building company has been ordered to pay the largest fine ever issued by a court in relation to a wildlife crime following a complex investigation by officers from the Metropolitan Police South East Command Unit. On Tuesday, 8 December 2020 Bellway Homes admitted damaging or destroying a breeding site or resting place for bats […]

Mark Goulding has now taken up the role of the Wildlife Crime Project Officer for the Bat Conservation Trust (BCT), replacing the recently retired Pete Charleston. Mark served 32 years in the military and South Wales Police. For the last twenty-two years he held frontline police operational posts alongside his wildlife crime role. Mark was […]

A housing developer has avoided jail after demolishing a Derbyshire bungalow despite knowing it was home to bats. In 2018, an application was made to North East Derbyshire District Council by a local developer to demolish an existing bungalow in Amber Lane, Ashover and, in its place, build a new dwelling. An ecologist’s survey identified […]