Grouse moor owner Ben Ramsden was found guilty at Skipton Magistrates Court today of three counts of burning on deep peat on a grouse moor on the Middlesmoor Estate in Nidderdale, Yorkshire on 8 April 2023.
The prosecution related to reports of a fire lit on the grouse moor that was believed to be on a European protected site (Special Area of Conservation / Special Protected Area) and in an area where the peat depth exceeded 4ocm (called ‘deep peat’). Under recent legislation (Heather and Grass etc Burning (England) Regulations 2021, burning is not permitted in such areas without a licence due to the importance of upland peatland habitat as a carbon store.
A report about the fire was made to DEFRA and following an investigation, the Crown Prosecution Service approved four charges and the case was due to be heard today at Skipton Magistrates Court at 2pm:
A number of people attended the court this afternoon only to discover that the case was heard this morning. Interesting. It is thought that Ramsden didn’t appear, but his representative lodged three guilty pleas on his behalf and the fourth charge was withdrawn. It would have been interesting to hear the defence’s argument on that fourth charge.
I understand that the court imposed fines in relation to the three guilty pleas but the amount has not yet been made public.
It’s not clear to me why the CPS charged Ben Ramsden as an individual, rather than charging the Middlesmoor Estate or his fellow co-owner, but his name is on the court documents so I guess there was some reason for that.
Ramsden is a prominent figure in the grouse-shooting world and his conviction will no doubt be embarrassing for the industry. Perhaps that’s why his portrait and biography has mysteriously ‘vanished’ from the list of Board members on the Moorland Association website in the last few weeks. This is what has been removed:
It’s all very curious, as Ramsden is still listed as a Director of the Moorland Association on documents held at Companies House (here).
Ramsden also featured in an article about Middlesmoor Estate published by the Yorkshire Post in July 2021 (here). His gamekeeper is quoted as claiming that burning on this grouse moor is ‘conducted carefully’.
Ramsden’s conviction is the second successful prosecution against a grouse moor owner for burning on deep peat. In May this year, the landowning company Dunlin Ltd was convicted and fined for six offences of burning on deep peat on a grouse moor on Midhope Moors in the Peak District (see here).
It’s good to see DEFRA take enforcement action against criminal grouse moor management in Nidderdale, which is a well-known raptor persecution hotspot. It’s obviously easier to prosecute for illegal burning than for the illegal killing of birds of prey because it’s much harder to hide the evidence of a fire than it is to stamp a poisoned/shot raptor corpse into the peat, hidden from view.
Although we shouldn’t get too carried away with our praise of DEFRA’s enforcement activities – my understanding is that between 30-60 other reports of allegedly unlawful fires have been submitted to DEFRA by a number of individuals, including with supplementary evidence such as photographs, grid references, peat depth measurements and actual time-stamped film footage of the fires, but for reasons that are not clear (or even known), DEFRA has chosen not to proceed with enforcement action in those cases. Hmm.
The evidence for the two successful prosecutions originated from reports made by members of the public to the RSPB’s Burn Recording App, where people can submit details of fires/muirburn on grouse moors throughout the UK. The value of this information has just been proven. If you’d like to get involved, read this background information (here) and visit the RSPB’s dedicated reporting website here.
UPDATE 23 October 2023: Moorland Association Director Ben Ramsden resigns & receives inconsequential fine following conviction for illegal burning of his grouse moor (here)
Raptor Persecution UK 
Excellent news!
Middlesmoor was an estate I knew pretty well in the eighties and nineties, although I think I only met Ben Ramsden twice as the estate seemed to be largely run by his brother Stephen much of the main body of their grouse moors is based on very deep peat and I’m surprised that much of it can be burned at all without a licence. Much of the whole of that west side of Nidderdale down towards Greenhow and across towards Grassington and Coniston is also on deep peat. I do hope the fines were significant.
I can ditto Paul on Ramsden experiences.
So, I read the article in the Yorkshire Post. They ought to republish it alongside the court case report. That’ll teach him.
Also very concerned to read that the hearing was moved, tho this sometimes happens, and the fines withheld. This info should be freely available. [Ed: I’m not sure the details of the fines are being ‘withheld’, they just hadn’t been entered onto the court database by this afternoon]
Aside to their legal wrongdoing – why burning on the 8th April? This would be considered getting a bit late on lots of moors regards disturbance to grouse, nevermind birds that often nest early in many areas such as Short Eared Owls. Couldn’t those burns have waited until the back end of the year? What justification is there, really? That it must’ve been desperately needed in terms of wildfire prevention for the summer. Aye, alright.
Fantastic result the moor was alight here over black Hambledon last Tues unbelievable the wind hold of it I didn’t think it was legal with climate change. .
What a wally just proves how they say one thing and do the opposite I cannot help but wonder if Beeley and one or two other moors above Matlock were originally drained for Grouse shooting (they now resemble moonscapes dry as deserts)and this is why they are in such a bad way now with water running off them all year round no doubt contributing to the floods.
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Whilst the conviction for the illegal burning of deep peat is very welcome, I think the conviction is perhaps more significant because it involves someone who was a member of the Board of Directors of the Moorland Association, an organisation which gave the impression of working to protect important and valuable moorland. As such this conviction could do a lot of damage to the credibility of Moorland Association. It will be interesting to see how the MA responds to this prosecution of one of their members?
I would also hope that the upper echelons of management within Natural England also take note of this conviction, and ask themselves some searching questions about their relationship with the organisations which represent the game shooting industry.
Perfectly put. It needs to carry weight in order to hurt and damage them. This should do that.
Wonderful news that he was convicted but still with a pathetic sentence; paltry fines no doubt.
It stinks that the case was moved and a fourth charge dropped with no reasons given.
What are they trying to hide I wonder?
And its utterly deplorable that DEFRA has chosen not to proceed with enforcement action in another 30 – 60 cases with no reasons given for those decisions either I expect.
It just goes to prove this government has no concern for our wildlife nor their environments
I was looking at a map of the uplands around Brechin, which has recently suffered catastrophic floods. All the uplands are heavily patched with “muirburn”. Wonder how much this contributed to excessive run-off?Also no trees for the ” bad birds” (as I’ve heard a grouse moor manager call them) to perch in. They also would have slowed run-off. Why don’t the flooded out locals complain more?
Companies House now (21 October) shows Ben Ramsden as resigned Director of Moorland Association with resignation date of 1 October. Although Director changes SHOULD be submitted within 14 days, they CAN be submitted later and the authorised person submitting the change then just sees a pop up warning message. So it would be interesting to know what date Raptor Persecution saw that Ben was listed as an active Director. As the resignation could have been submitted after conviction and sort of “back dated”. [Ed: he was still listed as a Director late yesterday afternoon]
Interesting timeline – convicted morning of 20 October, resignation as Director submitted to Companies House that afternoon or 21 October (amends are normally updated within an hour at most) but resignation date given as 1 October which exceeds required period. Must have been a stressful moment for whoever had to log on to do that.
Has anyone been in touch h with his local firearms department to ask if he’s had his gun licences removed now he has a criminal record