Further to this morning’s blog about sentencing being deferred for part-time gamekeeper Timothy Hall and his son, Lewis Hall, who have pleaded guilty to numerous offences relating to wild peregrines in Scotland being laundered as ‘captive bred’ peregrines to buyers in the Middle East (see here), the Daily Record has published more details about this case.
The article explains that the alarm was first raised by George Smith, a member of the Scottish Raptor Study Group who has monitored peregrine nest sites in the Scottish Borders for decades. He was concerned that breeding attempts were failing at sites that had previously been known to be routinely successful.
Officers from Police Scotland visited the sites with George and noticed marks that suggested someone had recently climbed to the nests.
Intelligence reports led to Timothy Hall’s home at Lamberton Holdings in Berwickshire where a large number of peregrines and eggs were found. Timothy Hall and his son Lewis claimed the young birds were captive bred but DNA evidence showed that at least seven recently-hatched chicks were not related to the captive peregrines owned by the Halls. Two chicks were later matched to an adult bird at a wild nest site and one was linked to another wild site.
Mobile phones and a drone used by the Halls was shown to have been used on 20 separate occasions to fly to known nest sites.
An analysis of bank accounts showed large sums of money being transferred from peregrine sales by Lewis Hall to a joint bank account owned by his parents. Some legitimate buyers had been duped by false paperwork procured by Lewis Hall in an attempt to pass off the young peregrines as legitimately captive bred.
Both men admitted failing to declare their profits to HMRC, which is why sentencing was deferred this morning for another four weeks.
Sheriff Peter Paterson reportedly told the court this morning: “These are very serious matters. I want to know what’s happened to the money. They claim they have limited assets and income.
“According to the background report for Lewis Hall, and I quote, ‘it’s clear these criminal actions have been carried out over a lengthy period of time and with great scale’. I will be informing HMRC and I’ll ask them to investigate any further charges.”
To read the full article in the Daily Record click here.
Raptor Persecution UK 
Thanks for the updates – the links on the last 3 updates have all failed to open up. Is there a problem? – Ian
[Ed: Can you let me know which links aren’t working and I’ll check them? Thanks]
So, if I’ve understood correctly, it’s only a serious matter because they didn’t pay tax not because of the wildlife crime.
I don’t think so, Lyn. The Sheriff has previously described the wildlife offences as serious (at the Dec 2023 hearing where Hall and Hall pleaded guilty). I think he’s just trying to ensure all appropriate charges are laid, although I don’t know whether there’s a time bar on alleged financial crimes. In this case, the Sheriff deserves credit for pursuing this angle.
https://www.richardnelsonllp.co.uk/guides/how-far-back-can-hmrc-investigate/
“The HMRC investigation time limit is 4 years if an innocent error is suspected; where mistakes in tax returns are deemed careless or negligent, the window extends to 6 years. Suspicion of deliberate tax evasion warrants an investigation period of 20 years.”
I would think Customs and Excise should be involved.They must have needed special licences to export these birds…..they don’t just go as hand bagage. How were they exported….Airlines should have correct paperwork?????
always seem to get away with it,never many prosecutions,but oh wait all of a sudden the government didn’t get there tax money suddenly they are interested, Sent from my Galaxy
Presumably the Scottish legal system has a proceeds of crime provision so they should be able to recover all the money even if it got transferred to their parents. I think their houses, vehicles and equipment will be top of the procurator’s list!
Well done to George Smith & the raptor study people. It demonstrates that they really do know when something abnormal is occurring with the bird populations they monitor. To me this also highlights a difference between a falconry related case where evidence can in theory still be found as it may at least still be living in an aviary (somewhere in the world!) owned, and a persecution case where the evidence is quickly disposed of (often burnt) and is much harder to find and when found – remains almost impossible to link beyond reasonable doubt to a specific individual out of a similarly very small handful of possible suspects.
Fine them £200 000 and 12 years in jail.
They are the scum of the earth and a disgrace to Scotland.
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I see that in the Derbyshire case the offender has been jailed for 18 weeks
Money is the route of all evil it’s unbelievable and so upsetting poor birds why can’t people live and let live.
Like mentioned how the hell do you get these birds transported without suspicion??
They obtained the official documents fraudulently, by falsely claiming the young birds were captive bred. DNA testing proved they’d lied about the identity of the parent birds.
Seeing as they seem to have such clear info from the bank accounts, will they be able to reclaim the proceeds of crime and redirect them to conservation or fighting wildlife crime?