In February this year, part-time gamekeeper Timothy Hall, 48, and his son Lewis Hall, 23, were sentenced after they’d pleaded guilty to the illegal laundering of wild peregrines that had been stolen from sites across southern Scotland and were sold on to falconers in the Middle East (see here).
Not guilty pleas were accepted by the court in December 2023 from wife and mother Suzanne Hall, a serving officer with Police Scotland, but she had a reserved fraud charge against her and was at the time reportedly suspended from Police Scotland on full pay (see here). I don’t know whether that situation has changed.
Despite their offences passing the threshold for a custodial sentence, Timothy Hall was ordered to complete 220 hours of unpaid work and Lewis Hall was ordered to complete 150 hours. These sentences were considered to be staggeringly inadequate given the extent of the Halls’ offending (see here).
However, the Crown Office reported that Lewis Hall would also be subject to action under the Proceeds of Crime Act, where profits from criminal activity can be confiscated.
Last week a hearing took place at Jedburgh Sheriff Court where it was revealed the Crown is seeking to recover £164,028.80 from Lewis Hall.
Hall’s defence lawyer, Liam Alexander, requested a further hearing to allow his client to pass on documentation to a forensic accountant to support Hall’s defence.
Sheriff Peter Anderson allowed the continuation but said as there had already been several of these, he set a proof hearing date of 4th September 2024, where all the available evidence will be heard and the sheriff will decide the outcome.
UPDATE 10 October 2024: Scottish court orders convicted peregrine launderer Lewis Hall to pay back thousands under Proceeds of Crime Act (here)
Raptor Persecution UK 
[Comment deleted as libellous]
If both part-time gamekeeper Timothy Hall, 48, and his son Lewis Hall, 23, pleaded guilty, and both found guilty, to the illegal laundering of wild peregrines that had been stolen from sites across southern Scotland and were then sold on to falconers in the Middle East, then, surely, one or both are accountable for the monies received, £164,028.80,in the sale of said wild peregrines?
And surely that documentation should have been put forward at the trial? Not now? What defence is there?
Our judicial system is a farce, especially sentences handed out, and most certainly for wildlife crimes, and needs updating soonest
Hi oj55,
Action under the Proceeds of Crime Act is necessarily separate to the first case, which was purely to establish whether the Halls were guilty of wildlife crime offences. Only once guilt was found could a separate action be taken (in this case against Lewis Hall) for the amount the Crown alleges he benefited/profited from his criminal activities.
Hall will have a defence if he can show that the amount of profit the Crown alleges he gained was from other, lawful activities. That’s why Hall is using the services of a forensic accountant. It’ll be up to the Sheriff to decide whether his defence is plausible when the case goes to a proof hearing in Sept.
Many thanks Ruth for your kind reply explaining the situation in response to my earlier message of 26.06.2024.
Apologies for my late reply, your email alerting me to your reply went into my spam folder for some unknown reason
What a pathetic outcome, what message does this send out,the laws a complete joke.
I agree, B Leecy, as do many others, that the sentences handed to Timothy and Lewis Hall for their involvement in the extensive laundering of wild peregrines was lamentable.
However, this separate action under the Proceeds of Crime Act is very encouraging indeed. If the Sheriff agrees with the Crown that Lewis Hall profited from his crimes to the sum of £164, 028.80, Hall can and will be pursued, for a very long time if necessary, until every last penny has been confiscated.
I have spent many of my long years campaigning for the more humane treatment of animals and human beings, through being a member of a host of organisations, that ultimately became high in supporters, as the extent of human depravity in its many forms, as in factory farming, whaling/seal culls, vivisection, rtfur trade, live transport of animals, bloodsports, trophy shooting, destruction of rainforests and tribal peoples, pet trade, “traditional medicines” such as donkey hides sometimes cut from living animals, rhino horn and elephant ivory, ransacking of primate populations (chimpanzees and monkeys) for use in laboratory experiments plus the palm oil destructive clearance that endangers the orang-utan, as does the demand for bush meat from gorillas.
The matter under review, the theft of peregrine chicks for high financial gain from Middle Eastern interests, is part of the afore-mentioned attrition list that will ultimately fulfil the humanity-led GREAT EXTINCTION, being broadcasted by scientists and groups with an intimate knowledge of the horror show out there in the real world. Here in the UK, we have a justice system with obviously prejudiced judiciary and “weak” connections, with the sentencing in this case, and added to other arraignment settlements, illustrating a glaring and contemptuous attitude from those entrenched in overlordship of the countryside and some courts, and indeed elsewhere. Are such people not cognisant of the fact, that
a huge mass of humanely-disposed people exist NOW, who wish more punitive sentencing of those showing no respect for the natural world, and who only see it for personal enrichment?
Unfortunately, this sort of sentence is par for the course. One has to question why the judiciary regularly fail to impose an appropriate sentence. I am of the belief that it is an unfortunate by-product of the UK’s archaic class system.
How many judges, sheriffs, magistrates, CPS barristers see themselves as part of the same peer group of the “elites” who tend to be the owners of the shooting estates, the customers of the falconry trade etc or, if not members of that “class”, aspire to be members thereof and does that affect their judgement?
Down here in England it is obvious that jails are full and judges feel inhibited from inposing custodial sentences. The only answer is a campaign pressing MPs in the new Parliament to build more prisons.
One might hope for additional facilities for training those who missed education and lack skills.
If he hasn’t already, he may well transfer all of his assets into someone else’s name and go down ye olde ‘declare bankruptcy’ route. I also wonder who will be paying the fees of his specialist accountant? That turns my mind to taking an educated guess as to where those stolen birds are right now (their DNA is known if I remember correctly, so they could in theory be traced if any law enforcement agency had the balls to try) and has me pondering what their value in money might be now.
It is beneath contempt. Do we see the malign influence of Freemasonry here?
I like the comment about the MPs in Parliament taking action to build more prisons. It looks as though the MPs would be filling them.