London ecologist cautioned over fake licences

Baby dormouse (credit: noclveglia)

In the first case of it’s type Natural England and the Metropolitan Police formally cautioned a London based ecologist after the discovery of forged protected species licences. The combined operation also resulted in the seizure of 3 forged licences – 2 covering common dormice and 1 covering greated crested newts.

Conditional caution issued to ecologist.

The unnamed female self employed ecologist was arrested under the Fraud Act and given a formal conditional caution. The woman used the forged licences in order to carry out paid ecological consultancy work. The ecologist was also placed under restrictions which requires:

Licences to protect wildlife are put in place to protect species now and for future generations and their forged production is a criminal offence which we and the Police take extremely seriously.

that she does not undertake work relating to the surveying of protected species unless she holds or works under direct personal on-site supervision of a licence holder,
that she does not assist anyone else in surveying protected species unless she holds a licence or is personally and directly supervised on-site by a licence holder.
that she is also required to inform Natural England in writing and in advance of any time she is to be involved in any surveys involving protected species.

Discovering forged wildlife documents is important.

Paul Cantwell, Natural England’s National Species Enforcement Officer, said: “This is an important case for us as it is the first time we have been able to evidence the fraudulent production and use of protected species licences.

“Licences to protect wildlife are put in place to protect species now and for future generations and their forged production is a criminal offence which we and the Police take extremely seriously. It is important that anyone who could be wilfully damaging the natural environment is held accountable for their actions. I would like to urge anyone with information about similar offences to contact the Natural England Licensing team, or the police Wildlife Crime Unit.”

Sergeant Ian Knox, Head of the MPS Wildlife Crime Unit, said “The forging of any Government licence is a serious matter and I am very pleased that we were able to work in partnership with Natural England to bring this investigation to a successful conclusion.“

Why forge a licence that’s issued free?

Protected species licences are issued by Natural England to ecologists and other relevant people who may need to interact with species at a level that would otherwise be illegal. This can cover disturbance of the species at the nest or roost sites, handling species or the movement and transportation of species.

Licences can be issued either as a personal licence or as a general licence. In either case they are issued free of charge if there is justification for the issuing of the licence. Most licences are issued within 30 days of an application being made.

It is difficult to understand why anyone would want to forge a protected species licence – they are free and applications are dealt with in a reasonable amount of time. The main reasons why a licence may not be awarded and then the need to forge one becomes obvious is that either:

the work is not justified,
the licence applicant does not have the technical expertise to undertake the work.

This case does demonstrate that when you need ecological work doing that involves protected species it’s always worth checking with Natural England that the licence is valid for the work that needs to be done.

External site:

Natural England protected species licences.