2025-2028 NPCC Wildlife & Rural Crime Strategy
Yellow-legged Asian Hornet Week 1st - 7th September 2025
Operation EASTER launches for the 28th year
Bat Conservation Trust launch Halloween video to celebrate bats 🦇
Operation Badger re-launch for National Badger Day!
Craig Fellowes awarded MBE for services to wildlife
Operation EASTER ~ 27 years of stopping egg thieves
Man who abseiled down cliff to take peregrine falcon eggs jailed
Newport company fined for the demolition of Bat Roost
Cheshire man sentenced after admitting animal cruelty offences
2,114 seizures of endangered animals and timber in major international law enforcement operation
Natural England prosecutes developer for breaching Bat Mitigation Licence
Vale of Glamorgan man prosecuted for destroying valuable wildlife habitat
Wildlife detectives take part in new Forensics Training programme
PSNI investigate death of two white-tailed eagles
PSNI launch Operation SUBRISION to deter and detect rural and wildlife crime
Lewisham man convicted for illegally exporting ivory
Operation EASTER launched for 2023 - stopping egg thieves and egg collectors
Monmouthshire company fined for damaging an important Great Crested Newt habitat
10 Oct 2014
Posted by NWCU6 “Seven people have appeared in court following a joint investigation by police and the RSPCA into dog and animal fighting. The six men and one woman – Nathan Baker, Jack Curnow, Craig Ford, Benjamin Luscombe, Craige McCormick, Alex Salt and Kerry Wrightson – were summonsed to Plymouth Magistrates Court to face a total of 35 […]
Read more → 09 Oct 2014
Posted by NWCU6 “A herd of fallow deer in a Westcountry park have been set upon by thugs with dogs, leaving two dead and two so badly injured they had to be destroyed. But the poachers, who broke into the National Trust country park by cutting a hole in a fence, left one of their dogs behind – […]
Read more → 09 Oct 2014
Posted by NWCU6 “Interpol has announced the formation of a specialist team to be based in Nairobi, Kenya, which will target wildlife criminals such as ivory poachers and rhino horn smugglers. The team will be an extension of the established Environmental Crime Unit based in Lyon, France. The dedicated team will help to co-ordinate activites of law enforcement […]
Read more → 09 Oct 2014
Posted by NWCU6 “Pressures on local policing make wildlife crime difficult to tackle, when other offences are deemed to have a higher priority in the eyes of the public, writes farming journalist Philip Bowern. But the National Wildlife Crime Unit, (NWCU) now headed up by Chief Inspector Martin Sims, has the job of investigating incidents like the Dyrham […]
Read more → 09 Oct 2014
Posted by NWCU6 “On 6 October Exeter Magistrates Court heard how in May 2013 the vessel Marina (BM190) was observed fishing for scallops in the Lyme Bay designated area by a UK Border Force vessel, HMC Valiant. Under the Lyme Bay Designated Area (Fishing Restrictions) Order, which came into effect in July 2008, dredging for shellfish and demersal […]
Read more → 06 Oct 2014
Posted by NWCU6 “Landowners and gamekeepers suspected of the illegal persecution of birds of prey are to face new sanctions. In future, they could lose licences which enable them to shoot or trap other species such as crows or pigeons. Licences are currently issued to land managers who wish to control birds deemed harmful to livestock or crops. […]
Read more → 03 Oct 2014
Posted by NWCU6 
“A gamekeeper has been convicted of “the worst case of bird of prey poisoning” recorded in England, the RSPB said. Allen Lambert, 65, who worked on the Stody Estate, near Holt in Norfolk was found guilty of deliberately killing ten buzzards and a sparrowhawk and possession of pesticides and items used to prepare poison baits. […]
Read more → 02 Oct 2014
Posted by NWCU6 
“The death of six buzzards in Aberdeenshire is being investigated by police. The birds were found in a field north of Fordoun on Wednesday afternoon. Police Scotland said an investigation was under way into the cause of the deaths. The field was off an unclassified road leading from Fordoun to Auchenblae.” To read the […]
Read more → 30 Sep 2014
Posted by NWCU6 
“Martin Mottershead, aged 53, of Park Farm, Quatt appeared before Telford Magistrates Court on 12th September 2014 and pleaded guilty to the illegal storage of a banned product containing sodium cyanide, contrary to the Plant Protection Products (Sustainable Use) Regulation 2012. Officers from the National Wildlife Crime Unit, Natural England and West Mercia, executed a […]
Read more → 28 Sep 2014
Posted by NWCU6 
“A warrant executed at an address in Devon resulted in the finding of a dead Common Buzzard Buteo buteo in the freezer of Mr Saleem ALI. Mr Ali claimed that the bird had been given to him by a friend, a claim that could not be disputed as the ‘friend’ had recently died. The Buzzard […]
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