An auctioneer has been fined £1,000 and left with a criminal record for trying to sell a chest of drawers containing 100-year-old birds’ eggs.
31st March 2010
Jim Railton, 57, fell foul of the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act by offering the Edwardian cabinet for sale because of what was inside.
The RSPB saw the item – complete with 54 eggs from species including herring gull and guillemot inside – and informed Northumbria Police.
An inquiry was launched and the auctioneer was arrested, questioned and had to give a DNA sample.
His legal saga ended at Alnwick magistrates, where he was fined £1,000, ordered to pay £70 costs and a £15 victim’s surcharge.
- Thank God you don’t live in Britain.
- Without eternal vigilance, it could happen here. Probably in California.