Prominent gamebird breeder Christopher Hodgson, Director of Ashley Game Farm Ltd in Wembworthy, Chulmleigh, Devon appears to have pleaded guilty to multiple offences including the use of the banned pesticide Carbofuran.
Ashley Game Farm Ltd is an exceptionally large breeding facility that, according to its website, ‘specialises in supplying pheasants and partridges to shoots in the west country and all areas of the UK and Europe‘. It claims to have ‘a hatching capacity for 410,000 eggs per week along with further investment in a second location at Tarrington, Hereford‘ and ‘retains around 80,000 chicks at Ashley Game Farm every week‘.
A multi-agency raid was carried out at Ashley Game Farm in March 2021 (here) following the discovery of a poisoned buzzard and poisoned baits in 2020.
Officers from Devon & Cornwall Police, Natural England, National Wildlife Crime Unit and the RSPB recovered a number of substances during the raid that were then sent for expert analysis.
This led to charges being laid against Christopher Hodgson as well as Ashley Game Farm Ltd in relation to the alleged use of Carbofuran and the alleged possession, storage and use of various plant protection, veterinary medicine and rodenticide products without authorisation at the game farm (see here).
Despite being banned for use in the EU for over 20 years, Carbofuran remained the ‘gamekeepers poison of choice’ for the illegal killing of raptors in the UK for many years, although in the last few years it has been overtaken by Bendiocarb.
Hodgson was due to appear in court today but information provided by the North and East Devon Magistrates Court indicates he and Ashley Game Farm Ltd have already pleaded guilty and will be sentenced in July.
Here are the details of the offences provided by the court:
Ashely Game Farm:
- On or before 26/03/2021 at Ashley Game Farm Limited, namely stored a plant protection product, namely Rivett MAPP 11300, without a valid authorisation or permission granted in accordance with Retained EU Regulation 1107/2009. Contrary to section 24 and 27 of the Plant Protection Products (Sustainable Use) Regulations 2012.
- Between 01/10/2020 and 27/03/2021 at Ashley Game Farm Limited, used a plant protection product, namely Carbofuran, in contravention of Article 28 (1) of Retained EU Regs 1107/2009. Contrary to section 24 and 27 of the Plant Protection Products (Sustainable Use) Regulations 2012.
- On or before 26/03/2021 at Ashley Game Farm Limited, used a Biocidal product, namely Lodi’s Sapphire Grain otherwise in accordance with the terms and conditions of its authorisation under Article 22 (1) and the labelling and packaging requirements of Article 69. Contrary to section 24 and 27 of the Plant Protection Products (Sustainable Use) Regulations 2012.
- On or before 26/03/2021 at Chulmleigh contravened a requirement imposed by a prohibition notice served under section 22 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 in that used a Biocidal product, namely Mole Valley Farmers Difenacoum Cut Wheat Rat Bait without authorisation being in force allowing for its use. Contrary to sections 22 and 33(1)(g) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.
- On or before 26/03/2021 at Chulmleigh in the county of Devon possessed an unauthorised veterinary medicinal product, namely possessed an unauthorised veterinary medical product, namely Dimetridazole (DMZ). Contrary to regulations 26(1), 43(r) and 44(1) of the Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013.
Christopher Hodgson:
On or before 26/03/2021 being a Director of Ashley Game Farm Limited, a body corporate who had committed an offence, stored a plant protection product, namely Rivett MAPP 11300, without a valid authorisation or permission granted in accordance with Retained EU Regulation 1107/2009 and the offence was committed with the consent or connivance, or attributable to the neglect of Christopher Hodgson. Contrary to section 24 and 27 of the Plant Protection Products (Sustainable Use) Regulations 2012.
Between 01/10/2020 and 27/03/2021 being a Director of Ashley Game Farm Limited, a body corporate who had committed an offence, namely used a plant protection product, namely Carbofuran, in contravention of Article 28 (1) of Retained EU Regulation 1107/2009 and the offence was committed with the consent or connivance, or attributable to the neglect of Christopher Hodgson. Contrary to section 24 and 27 of the Plant Protection Products (Sustainable Use) Regulations 2012.
Ashley Game Farm Ltd displays the logo of the Game Farmers’ Association on its website:
The Game Farmers’ Association (strapline: ‘representing the UK’s game farmers & promoting high standards‘) is one of the eight organisations in the shooting industry’s umbrella partnership, ‘Aim to Sustain‘, a lobbying campaign group aimed at promoting ‘sustainable and responsible’ game shooting. Presumably Christopher Hodgson and Ashley Game Farm Ltd will be expelled as a result of this criminal conviction.
Hodgson will appear in court in Exeter on 18 July 2024 for sentencing.
Well done to Devon & Cornwall Police, National Wildlife Crime Unit, Natural England and the RSPB’s Investigations Team for excellent partnership-working.
UPDATE 20 July 2024: Poisoned buzzard leads to discovery of multiple pesticide offences – Ashley Game Farm & Director Christopher Hodgson fined £40,000+ (here)
Raptor Persecution UK 
They aren’t being prosecuted over the Buzzard then? Have the prosecutors done a deal so they cop a guilty plea and other charges are dropped? At least they have been prosecuted for something. Well done all. I bet now, having broken the guidelines, they’ll be shunned by the shooting community 😉 !
Why the hell can gamekeepers get hold of these banned pesticides all over the country. It Cannot be the best kept secret but the authorities seem powerless to cut off this constant stream of them it makes no sense at all.
If a game farmer cannot source this stuff – given the network of contacts that they necessarily have as a hub in the industry, then nobody can! I’m not commenting on this case but generally speaking if you were a keeper who wanted the stuff and couldn’t source it discreetly from among your own friendship circles / local clique, you would probably look to the people who supply everything else that the industry needs…and if your Estate was a big concern potentially buying in thousands of birds…then those people would want to try and help you out. From memory there is a good description of an actual case similar to that scenario in “Wildlife Crime” book by Dave Dick.
“Why the hell can gamekeepers get hold of these banned pesticides…”They aren’t ALL banned. One, Carbofuran – which is banned – is readily available ‘for export outside of EU’ only. You have to pay careful attention the exact wording of the charges.
410,00 eggs at one place, 80,000 chicks at another, one word ABHORENT!
What are the odds that the punishment will be a slap on the wrist and meaningless in the grand scheme of things?
[Ed: comment deleted as libellous]
https://www.audubon.org/magazine/spring-2020/this-brutal-pesticide-creates-circle-death-so-why
On a related point – maybe it’s just me, but on the “Aim to Sustain” website I can’t find a list of which Estates they have audited as part of the assurance scheme? If they are wishing to promote their accreditation as being robust and trustworthy to prospective paying Guns looking for a shoot to book a day, or potential buyers of game meat, they should surely have a list of audited Estates proudly & prominently displayed. Otherwise, people might think that they didn’t have faith that their audits could stand up to independent scrutiny.
It’s not just you, spaghnum. When the assurance scheme was being run by British Game Alliance the names of ‘accredited’ estates were published for a short while, but were swiftly removed from the website once questions were being asked about some of those ‘accredited’ estates where raptor persecution crimes had been recorded. See: https://raptorpersecutionuk.org/2018/07/12/accuracy-transparency-proving-difficult-for-game-shooting-industrys-british-game-alliance/
and
https://raptorpersecutionuk.org/2021/07/24/game-shooting-industry-offers-to-mark-its-own-homework/
It looks like Aim to Sustain is following the same practice…
The police should be tracking all these banned pesticides to establish the suppliers’ identities. It must be a criminal offence to sell them to people?
The problem is these banned pesticides are being kept hidden and are distributed amongst friends and colleagues on the quiet – they’re not being sold over the counter!
Remember in 2010 when police/RSPB found a massive sack of Carbofuran (10kg) in a locked shed on Skibo Estate? The RSPB estimated it was enough to kill all of Scotland’s raptors several times over.
https://raptorpersecutionuk.org/2011/05/26/skibo-estate-results-and-this-is-justice/
Illegal poison stashes have been uncovered on a number of estates over the years, quite often buried in a remote area of an estate away from view. Eg:
https://raptorpersecutionuk.org/2016/12/09/poisons-cache-found-on-yorkshire-grouse-moor-no-prosecution/
“It must be a criminal offence to sell them to people?”
But they aren’t “all banned”, so it is not necessarily an offence to sell them. Read the charges carefully.
I didn’t say they were all banned but we read of many cases on this site where banned poisons have been used to kill raptors. I appreciate that certain pesticides are permitted but time and time again, the banned ones are found to have been used to kill raptors. There must be a way of stopping this. How is it they exist in this country if they are banned? There must be a supply chain.
“How is it they exist in this country if they are banned?”
Because they are not banned (for use) everywhere in the world, and manufacturers can legally make them in this country for export only.
That immediately opens two illegal routes to obtaining them: breaking into or pilfering from UK manufacturing/exporting/shipping facilities, or smuggling them back into this country from any other country where they remain perfectly legal to buy and use.
Either way, a UK black market for the products can emerge. Remember, we are dealing with hardened criminals.
(Think how common ‘illegal’ drugs are used in the UK)
Of course, depending on the shelf-life of these products, they may also be stashed away for however long?
This incident just highlights another reason why the rearing and release of millions of non native game birds into the countryside should be banned. Estates which want to shoot pheasant and partridge should be required to manage the existing stocks of these birds which are already roaming about the countryside.
However, as evidence regarding the illegal dumping of so many pheasant carcasses suggests, many of those that shoot these non native game birds aren’t interested in shooting a pair of birds to take home and eat, but just want to shoot as many birds as possible so they can boast about bag sizes and kills.
This mindset is not acceptable, and I would argue leads to some estates trying to meet these shooters demands by producing unsustainable game bird numbers often through illegal means.
This then leads to rogue estates undermining the valuable conservation work which does take place.
This is something the shooting industry needs to accept and properly deal with, but something to date that there is very little evidence of actually happening.
Perhaps a way forward would be to stop the payment of stewardship grants and rural payments to those that release non native game birds into the countryside? Why are tax payers funding something which has dubious benefits to our native flora and fauna?