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Mr Outterside said data cards used for cataloguing and entries in various diaries entitled 'Birds Nests and Eggs' linked Pearson to collecting eggs. He stole five chough eggs and three peregrine falcon eggs in North Wales in April 2005 and four barn owl eggs in Humberstone, Lincs, two weeks later.
He claimed he was given many of them by a notorious collector, but he admitted three charges of theft of eggs that he took from nests himself. Some 595 of the eggs hoarded by father-of-one Pearson, 41, a painter and decorator, of Cleethorpes, Humberside, could not be identified by experts.īut he pleaded guilty to possessing 653 Schedule One eggs - the rarest and most protected under the Act - and possessing a further 6,477 eggs.Ĭaught out: Officers document just a tiny part Pearson's massive collection of rare eggs
#Aladdin old man in jail professional#
"Mr Pearson accepts by his pleas being a professional bird egg thief and collector at the highest level of one of Britain's most destructive natural pastimes." He added: "In conservation terms this is one of the most significant seizures of bird eggs since the inception of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
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Mr Outterside said the haul represented the largest found in the past decade and was among the biggest uncovered during the past 20 years. They included golden eagle, little tern, osprey, black-necked grebe, avocet, black-tailed godwit, stone curlew, chough, peregrine falcon and red-throated diver. The court heard eggs from some of the very rarest nesting birds in the UK were discovered among Pearson's 7,715-strong collection. Sick: The eggs were stored in polystyrene boxes and painstakingly catalogued In the bedroom were over 7,000 wild bird eggs, found mainly in polystyrene containers." "Mr Pearson took the officers upstairs to the main bedroom.
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In total Pearson crammed more than 7,700 eggs - all protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act - into his modest home in Cleethorpes, Lincs.īut his secret life as one of the country's most prolific collectors ever was finally exposed when police acting on a tip-off swooped on the property.Īlong with officials from the RSPB, officers launched Operation Easter and executed a search warrant following a tip-off in November 2006.ĭavid Outterside, prosecuting, told magistrates in Skegness, Lincs: "The house was an Aladdin's cave, crammed full of wild bird eggs. Many of them were carefully stored in polystyrene boxes and painstakingly catalogued by the date on which they had been removed from their nests.Ī pile of diaries also "fastidiously" detailed the make-up of the array, with Ordinance Survey Map grid references and even notes on freshness. Richard Pearson turned a bedroom of his home into an "Aladdin's cave" devoted to his extraordinary collection, which ran to thousands of eggs. Judge Desmond Hogan imposed concurrent sentences totalling 10 years and suspended the final five years.Professional: Convicted thief Richard Pearson is pictured outside court yesterdayĪ man caught with the biggest illegal haul of wild bird eggs uncovered in Britain in 20 years was jailed yesterday after being branded "evil". a bit of hash, a bit of weed and a few tablets." Officers asked what was inside and Daly replied: "Things that shouldn't be in it, you would be surprised. Richard Daly (55) has been jailed for five years and will begin his sentence after he completes a four-year reactivated prison term for drugs offences.ĭaly, of Oliver Bond House, Dublin, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to five counts including possession of drugs for sale or supply, unlawful possession of ammunition, possession of a stolen garda uniform and of other stolen goods at Huntsman's House, Ballymount Cross, Clondalkin, Dublin on September 11, 2013.Ĭustoms officers were carrying out a random spot check at a storage facility in Dublin in 2013. A grandfather was caught with an 'Aladdin's cave' of over half-a-million euro worth of drugs, hundreds of stolen NCT and insurance certificates, ammunition, stolen camera equipment and a garda uniform.