Two Buddhists fined £15,000 for releasing crustaceans into sea

Saturday 23 September 2017 11.31 BST Last modified on Monday 25 September 2017 09.54 BST

Two Buddhists who released £5,000 worth of crustaceans into the Channel as part of a religious ceremony have been fined almost £15,000 for causing “untold damage” to the environment.

Zhixiong Li and Ni Li helped throw live crabs and lobsters into the sea off Brighton as part of a “life release” ceremony in 2015, a court has heard.

The pair were part of a group of almost 1,000 people celebrating the visit of the Taiwanese Buddhist master Hai Tao.

Their ritual was performed in the belief that returning animals to the wild is good karma. But because the crustaceans were not native species, they threatened other marine life and government agencies had to spend thousands of pounds in an attempt to recapture the shellfish, offering fishermen a bounty to reel them in.

In the first case of its kind, Zhixiong Li, 30, an estate agent, and Ni Li, 33, a City banker, both from London, admitted wildlife offences and were fined.

Both defendants pleaded guilty to releasing non-native species into the wild at Brighton magistrates’ court this week.

Joseph Miller, prosecuting for the Marine Management Organisation, said the case first came to light after a Brighton fisherman captured some of the foreign shellfish in June 2015.

CCTV footage from Brighton marina showed the group of Buddhists chartering three boats, having also bought more than £2,500 worth of native crabs and lobsters from Brighton and Newhaven Fish Sales at Shoreham harbour.

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Bolton man fined for destroying a bat roost

Fined for destroying a bat roost

July 2013. A Chorley Magistrates Court heard a case against Mr David Dalton, 33, of Bolton, who had been charged with destroying a bat roost. Following a guilty plea Mr Dalton was fined £540 with £100 costs and a £54 surcharge (Maximum penalties for destroying a bat roost are six months imprisonment and or a £5000 fine).

Offences against bats are one of the UK's wildlife crime priorities of identical standing to the illegal trade in endangered species and the persecution of birds of prey.

Brown long-eared bats are particularly loyal to their roost sites and will return
 to the same site each year for many years so retaining and protecting
 bat roost sites is essential for the survival of the species.
 The Bat Conservation Trust is the only national organisation solely
 devoted to the conservation of bats and their habitats in the UK.
 It runs a national helpline to provide advice and information on bats.
 The Bat Helpline receives more than 9,000 calls a year.
Tel: 0845 1300 228 or visit www.bats.org.uk .

Demolished building he knew contained bats

Mr Dalton is the owner of property in Rivington Lane that he wished to develop. He engaged the services of an ecological consultant who surveyed the buildings and found a roost of brown-long eared bats. To allow the building to be developed a licence would have been required outlining how the needs of bats were being considered. Mr Dalton demolished the building without a licence and destroyed the bat roost.

‘Ignored the law'

Wildlife Crime Officer for Lancashire Police Mark Thomas said: Lancashire Police take every report of wildlife crime very seriously. "We have worked hard to bring this case to court, people can't just start carrying out building renovation work and think they don't have to have the correct surveys and licences to cover the work they intend to do. The reason they have to do this is to protect certain species in this case bats and their roosts. Working together with the Bat Conservation Trust, we put together a package for criminal proceedings against a local land and property owner Mr Dalton from the Rivington area who chose to ignore the law and the codes of practice. It is the responsibility of property owners and developers to ensure all building work has had appropriate ecological surveys undertaken."

Pete Charleston Investigations Officer for the Bat Conservation Trust explains: "Bat roosts are very important sites for conservation. The loss of bat roosts is thought to be one reason why bat populations declined dramatically in the 20th Century. By following conditions set out in a license the impact of building, development and demolition on bats can be minimized. If you plan works and follow the mitigation measures as outlined in the license, projects can run smoothly; if you don't it is a serious offence that puts bat populations at risk." The Bat Conservation Trust have provided support to Lancashire Police during this investigation and are very grateful both to the Police and the Crown Prosecution Service for their efforts in bringing this case to court.

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James Kistler Faces $500 A Day Fine Over Pet Ducks

This law is for the birds, according to a Pennsylvania man facing steep penalties for his pet ducks.

Authorities are threatening James Kistler of Delmont, a town east of Pittsburgh, with fines of $500 per day because his four pet birds violate local zoning rules, reports TV station KDKA. He got his first warning in May.

A long list of animals are banned by a household pet ordinance, the Pittsburgh Tribune Review reports.

Owners cannot keep swine, goats, sheep, insects, reptiles having a venomous or constrictor nature, bovines, quadrupeds and poultry -- such as ducks -- in the living quarters of a residential structure.

To Kistler, it's a bird-brained rule that says his blue Swedish ducks -- named Larry, Curly, Moe and Fred -- have to go.

“Frankly, how can anyone tell you what kind of pet you can have!” Kistler said, according to CBS.

And talk about a big duck bill; if Delmont officials impose the penalty it will quickly cut into Kistler's nest egg.

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$1 million dollar plus fine and 42 months in jail for smuggling rhino horn

Wildlife agents seize hoard of cash, jewellery, gold and rhino horn from defendants

May 2013.

Vinh Chuong "Jimmy" Kha, 50, and Felix Kha 26, were sentenced in Los Angeles to serve 42 and 46 months, respectively, in prison for crimes related to illegal international trafficking of rhinoceros horn.

$1 million plus fine
In addition to the prison sentences, the two defendants were ordered to pay a total of $20,000 in criminal fines and pay a $185,000 tax fraud penalty and assessment. In addition, Jimmy Kha's Win Lee Corporation was ordered to pay a $100,000 fine. Jimmy and Felix Kha, along with Win Lee Corporation, were also ordered to pay a total of $800,000 in restitution to the Multinational Species Conservation Fund, a statutorily created fund that is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to support international efforts to protect and conserve rhinos and other critically endangered species around the world. The defendants previously abandoned their portion of interest in $2 million worth of rhino parts and vehicles seized in the investigation.


The Khas are among several individuals charged so far with federal crimes as a result of "Operation Crash," an ongoing FWS-led investigation of the black market rhino horn trade named for the term used to describe a herd of rhinoceros.


"The Khas engaged in egregious criminal conduct by taking the horns of a species on the brink of extinction and making millions of dollars in the illegal trade in rhino horns," said Ignacia S. Moreno, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division. "The Khas sentence sends a strong message that those who violate the law by illegally trading in rhino horns will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law."


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Heythrop Hunt members admit illegal fox hunting

Members of an Oxfordshire-based hunt that Prime Minister David Cameron has previously ridden with have been fined for hunting foxes illegally.

Richard Sumner and Julian Barnfield, of the Heythrop Hunt, pleaded guilty at Oxford Magistrates' Court to charges brought by the RSPCA.

Film gathered by anti-hunt monitors over four days during the 2011/12 season was played in court.

Sumner and Barnfield were the master and huntsman of the hunting group.

They pleaded guilty to four separate counts, on four separate occasions, of unlawfully hunting a wild fox with dogs.

Heythrop Hunt Ltd also pleaded guilty to four counts of the same charge.

'Landmark case'

The presiding magistrate called the RSPCA's £327,000 costs "staggering".

He said the public could question whether the charity's funds to bring the case to court could have been better spent.

Continued:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-20758022