A GAMEKEEPER who illegally killed birds, badgers and an otter has been sentenced to more than 200 hours of unpaid work.
Alan Wilson, 61, from Duns in the Borders, was sentenced at Jedburgh Sheriff Court after pleading guilty last month to nine charges, the Crown Office said. He was convicted of killing of three common buzzards, three badgers, two goshawks and an otter.
He was ordered to carry out 225 hours of unpaid work and given a Restriction of Liberty Order requiring him to be at home between 9pm-6am for 10 months.
Sara Shaw, head of the Wildlife and Environmental Crime Unit, said: “Alan Wilson’s actions amount to a campaign of deliberate criminality involving the illegal killing of a number of protected species. He has shown an utter disregard for wildlife laws, which serve to protect these species.
“I would like to thank Police Scotland, the Scottish SPCA and RSPB Scotland for their part in investigating and gathering evidence of these abhorrent offences.”
The incidents took place between March 2016 and June 2017 on the Longformacus Estate in Duns, which manages land for game bird shooting. Other charges included setting illegal snares, possessing illegal pesticides and other devices designed to catch raptors as well as shotguns and rifles.
An undercover Scottish SPCA investigator said: “This is a despicable case of serious and systematic crimes to indiscriminately remove wildlife from an estate. The sheer volume of dead wildlife discovered is truly shocking. A Scottish Gamekeepers Association spokesman said Wilson’s membership would be terminated. A spokesman said: “The actions, in this case, are a gross breach of our organisation’s wildlife crime policy.
“They reflect negatively on the reputation of the entire profession and are unacceptable and entirely out of step with what we expect.”
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