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[Yorkshireman]

Businessman fined £28,000 for felling protected yew tree - Telegraph

 

fined £28,000.00 for removal of a protected tree

[geoff]

Good job that he got a substantial fine , he knew what he was up to by the sound of it.

[Rich2484]

Good. Glad someone has done there job right.

 

He was definatly after extra money. He filed for permission before and withdrew it, guess he thought that by waiting a couple of years people would have forgotten.

[nepia]

Interesting to see that the conviction was under the Proceeds of Crime Act. It's a large and encompassing piece of legislation most commonly used to deal with money laundering.

I make no judgement on that but if the offence was purely cutting down a Protected tree isn't there specific legislation?

Of course the paper could have made a mistake; it's happened.

 

Jon

[felixthelogchopper]

Interesting to see that the conviction was under the Proceeds of Crime Act. It's a large and encompassing piece of legislation most commonly used to deal with money laundering.

I make no judgement on that but if the offence was purely cutting down a Protected tree isn't there specific legislation?

Of course the paper could have made a mistake; it's happened.

 

Jon

 

He committed a criminal act with the aim of making money,ie the proceeds, in the same way as somebody would sell stolen property to make money so I can see the thinking behind it. My guess is that they used that particular legislation as it would hit harder financially.

[Mark Bolam]

Max fine normally £20k without this legislation Felix, so I reckon you're bang on the money, excuse the pun.

[nepia]

...That explains it then guys; thanks.

[Peasgood]

From what I can make of the article he still profited anyway.

[Andy Clark]

Smells like a plea bargain to me.

 

Let's not forget that the issue wouldn't stop at felling the tree.....

 

The article states that the tree was TPO'd yes, but that the area was covered as a conservation area, and thus would've needed planning permission for the entire job - including the removal of the wall, removal of any other grass/greenery and transferring to hard standing for the car park.

 

TPO contravention alone can be up to iro 20ish grand, plus whatever fines for the removal of the wall and other breach of planning regs etc, so I would guess that they settled on an overarching conviction with a lesser payout, rather than individual convictions for each breach of the planning regs with a much larger cumulative payout.

 

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[Peasgood]

He was only actually fined £10k

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

A point well & truly missed by the judge perhaps.... What about an order to replace tree / return the area to its previous status?