Operation Easter
Operation Easter is a nationwide operation that has been co-ordinated by Tayside Police since its inception in 1997. The aim is to convict or deter the main collectors of rare wild birds' eggs in the UK and abroad. Because of the success of the operation, the number of known egg thieves who are believed still active has reduced from somewhere around 130 to no more than 30. Important factors in this dramatic reduction are the real risk now of being caught by the police and the likelihood of being imprisoned if convicted.
Because of these risks many egg collectors have given up their 'hobby', though may well still retain their egg collection. Some now go abroad to collect eggs, where the police may not take this crime so seriously, though we frequently alert the police in other countries if we are aware of an impending visit by a collector. Other egg thieves are still prepared to run the risk of collecting eggs in the UK and are the main focus of our attention.
Operation Easter is one of extremely few operations that involves every single police force in the UK, and has links with the National Wildlife Crime Unit, the UK Border Agency and the RSPB.
Operation Easter continues its success, with several good results :
In 2005 we started off with the recovery of 3600 eggs from the home of an Operation Easter target in Norfolk. This man specialised in collecting the eggs of the Nightingale, and had 166 eggs, and those of the Nightjar, of which he had 89 eggs. If these eggs were all collected in the same general area this would have had a serious effect on the numbers of these birds, which are not common in any case. 200 of the eggs were from the even rarer birds on Schedule 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act, with 24 of those from the Little Tern. The man pleaded guilty and was sentenced to ten weeks imprisonment despite have no previous convictions. It was a good result.
In the summer of 2005 the home address of another Operation Easter target, this time from Northumbria, was searched and over 800 eggs recovered. These included eggs of the Stone Curlew, Little Ringed Plover, Little Tern and Red-throated Diver, all Schedule 1 birds. The man was sentenced to 280 hours of community service, which is a direct alternative to imprisonment.
In the search of another target's house in Warwickshire in the Autumn, the police were really looking for a weapon after a complaint of assault. No weapon was found but 76 eggs were discovered. This time the rarer eggs were those of the Kingfisher, Little Ringed Plover and Tree Pipit. The man was sentenced to four months imprisonment, this being his eighth conviction for taking eggs.
In the early spring of 2006 two men from Merseyside, both Operation Easter targets, were arrested in Wales and charged with intentional or reckless disturbance of a nesting Goshawk. One of the men was later sentenced to 4 months imprisonment, suspended for 12 months and had his equipment confiscated. In addition he had to pay £800 costs and was banned by the court from entering any National Park or RSPB Reserve for a year.
In the summer of 2006 400 eggs were recovered from an Operation Easter target's address in Middlesbrough though the man has since disappeared. Later in the year the house of another target, this time in Grimsby, was searched and nearly 8000 eggs recovered. In due course the man pleaded guilty to 5 charges :
1. possess 653 eggs of Schedule 1 species
2. possess 6477 eggs of other wild birds
3. taking Chough eggs
4. taking Peregrine eggs
5. taking Barn Owl eggs
In April 2008 he was sentenced to 23 weeks imprisonment for each offence, to run concurrently, and ordered to pay £1500 costs.
In October of 2006, two of our targets from Norfolk and Leicestershire pleaded guilty to several taxidermy and egg-related offences and after a trial lasting eight days were found guilty of other similar offences to which they had pleaded Not Guilty. The offences included the trade in eggs from Russia and Norway, and trips to North Rona where Leach's Petrel, Storm Petrel and Arctic Skua - all sea birds - nest. These birds were recovered as taxidermy specimens. One of the men, a landowner with property in London, was jailed for four months and ordered to pay costs of £30,000. The other man, a retired magistrate, was sentenced to two months imprisonment suspended for a year and was ordered to pay costs of £8,300.
The autumn of 2006 was a good season for egg recoveries. 93 Schedule 1 eggs and over 800 non-Schedule 1 birds' eggs were recovered in the house of an Operation Easter target in Tyne and Wear. The case is still pending.
In November 2006 a man from Strathclyde was fined £300 at Stirling Sheriff Summary Court after recklessly or intentionally disturbing nesting ospreys.
In June 2007, houses of three targets in Warwickshire and West Midlands were searched by police and RSPB. Eggs were recovered in all three. One man was subsequently sentenced to 26 week's imprisonment for being in possession of Raven and Peregrine eggs. The second man was found guilty of possessing 4 Skylark eggs and egg collecting equipment. He was given a Community Service Order of 50 hours unpaid work, was made to pay costs of £250 and had books and camera equipment confiscated.
The years since 2007 have been much less plagued by egg thieves, though two cases involving the seizure of many thousands of eggs in Scotland are due to be heard in court in 2011. It seems as if the concerted work by all of the police forces in the UK and the RSPB is paying off!
