71-year-old Briton jailed for third time for stealing rare bird eggs on large scale, nearly 3,000 eggs found in house

A 71-year-old Briton has been jailed for the third time for taking rare bird eggs from nature on a large scale. After he was caught red-handed, police found nearly 3,000 eggs in his house. Before that, the police also found thousands of eggs.

This time the man was caught by a wildlife camera, which turned on him when he was taking nightmare eggs from a nest in a nature reserve. The police could identify him with his special baton.

2,995 eggs were later found in his house, neatly labeled, almost all of them from protected bird species. 546 eggs came from critically endangered species, such as the yellow warbler, the linnet and the green warbler.

Part of the collection was hidden behind a panel in the bathroom. Police also found books about birds, binoculars and egg-beating equipment

The egg thief has been jailed twice before for the same crime. In 2005, he was jailed for 10 weeks after police found nearly 4,000 eggs in his home. In 2018, it was caught again with a collection of almost 5,000 eggs.

As a result he was sentenced to 18 weeks in prison. He was banned from entering special nature reserves for ten years. Many of these areas appeared on the petals of the last eggs found.

The man has pleaded guilty. He has been collecting eggs for about sixty years. His father gave him the ‘hobby’ and he says it has become an addiction for him. This time he will receive a 12 week prison sentence. He must also pay restitution and receive psychiatric treatment for a year.

Conservationists were horrified by the number of eggs laid by man and the many breeding attempts made by rare birds because of it. In England it has been forbidden to take eggs from the wild since 1954.