In beauty spots across Britain, callous thieves are earning fortunes by ...

In beauty spots across Britain, callous thieves are earning fortunes by ...
In beauty spots across Britain, callous thieves are earning fortunes by ...

The next Mission Impossible movie, the seventh in the series, will see Tom Cruise — alias agent Ethan Hunt — attempt yet another breath-taking escape from the jaws of death.

Clinging to the side of a runaway train as it hurtles off the track and plunges from a towering cliff, our hero must leap for his life before it smashes on the rocks below.

Searching for a forbidding place to shoot the scene this summer, location scouts found a disused limestone quarry in the Derbyshire Peak District, presumably unaware that a real-life act of daredevilry had recently been filmed there.

This other mission was more plausible, but the shadowy character who carried it off was certainly no hero.

After attaching a rope to the top of the quarry, the person abseiled down its sheer face to a ledge, where a pair of peregrine falcons — one of Britain’s most protected birds — had made their nest.

Female peregrine falcon in Wales. Clinging to the side of a runaway train as it hurtles off the track and plunges from a towering cliff, our hero must leap for his life before it smashes on the rocks below

Female peregrine falcon in Wales. Clinging to the side of a runaway train as it hurtles off the track and plunges from a towering cliff, our hero must leap for his life before it smashes on the rocks below

Then the person snatched the three or four reddish-brown eggs incubating there, placed them in a carton, inched down a drop of about 170 ft and stalked off.

As they carried out this despicable act of wildlife piracy, the unhatched chicks’ parents hovered helplessly overhead, their cries echoing across the cavernous pit.

Though peregrine falcons are the fastest creatures on the planet, swooping on other birds at up to 200 mph and dispatching their prey with powerful blows from their sword-sharp yellow talons, they are no match for a predatory human.

Given the remoteness of the location, the intrepid thief’s work may have gone undiscovered but for a covert camera, set up by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) to monitor the nest.

The man they claim to have trapped on film, in the late spring of 2020, is hardly in the Tom Cruise mould. Indeed, John Fenton is a 61-year-old former abattoir worker acting as a carer for his partner, but he vehemently denies he was the thief.

Neighbours in the Derbyshire town of Whaley Bridge, where he keeps a smallholding behind his cottage and plays darts for the local pub, speak of him in glowing terms. The sort who ‘keeps an eye out for your property when you’re away’.

However, Mr Fenton has been charged with stealing the eggs, disturbing breeding falcons, and possessing items capable of being used to commit these offences, which carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail and/or an unlimited fine.

He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The most expensive Gyrfalcon was sold for £338,164 ($466,667) on the last day of the International Falcon Breeders Auction (IFBA) organized by the Saudi Falcon Club in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

The most expensive Gyrfalcon was sold for £338,164 ($466,667) on the last day of the International Falcon Breeders Auction (IFBA) organized by the Saudi Falcon Club in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Chesterfield magistrates recently adjourned his trial, but he is expected to claim a case of mistaken identity, insisting he isn’t the man shown in the RSPB video. Whoever it was that risked life and limb to abseil down that quarry wall, wildlife organisations are deeply concerned.

For in recent months there has been a spate of peregrine falcon egg thefts, not only in Derbyshire but in other rural counties, and they say this cruelly exploitative crime is becoming more prevalent.

Last May, a serving woman police officer was among three people arrested after police and the Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals raided a house in Berwick-on-Tweed, where they recovered falcon eggs and chicks.

The trio have yet to come to trial, so their guilt remains to be proved.

When investigating other cases such as this, involving the theft and illegal sale of rare birds’ eggs, the police have an eye to any connections to organised crime.

Why, you may wonder, might organised criminals be interested in birds’ eggs? The answer lies in Middle Eastern countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, where falcon racing is fast replacing horse and camel racing as the sport of sheikhs.

The most prized specimens now change hands for tens of thousands of pounds, and sometimes considerably more.

At an auction near Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, last month, a pure white gyrfalcon — a cousin of the peregrine — sold for £337,000, shattering the previous world record set in the same saleroom last year.

The bird weighed in at 34.5 oz, so it was effectively valued at £9,768 per ounce . . . more than five times the price of gold. This falcon wasn’t stolen from the wild. It was bred legally, in captivity, by a U.S. company called Pacific Northwest Falcons, whose owner, Danny Ertsgaard, told me this week how he makes millions selling to fabulously rich Saudis.

‘We had one customer buy five of the six we produced, and he sent a jet to pick them up. We worked out it cost $250,000 just to fly that jet,’ he said. ‘It’s amazing what deep pockets in the Arab world can do.

‘What’s special about these birds [his gyrfalcons] is that they’re ultra-white, which is hard to produce. We produce five or six every year.’

The record-breaking bird was bought at the Saudi Falcons Club auction. It was screened live on national TV, but Mr Ertsgaard, who had set its reserve price at £146,000, was there to watch as the bidding grew ever-more dizzy. He declined to name the buyer.

However, in 2016, one of Britain’s foremost breeders, Bryn Close, sold his Doncaster-based falcon farm to the Abu Dhabi royal family for £3.7 million — with the proviso that he continue to rear the birds.

Four years ago, when his falcons won six of the ten races in a Middle Eastern tournament, bringing his billionaire clients more than £1 million in prize money, they rewarded him with a Nissan Patrol V8 4x4 worth about £75,000.

As they carried out this despicable act of wildlife piracy, the unhatched chicks¿ parents hovered helplessly overhead, their cries echoing across the cavernous pit. Pictured, Peregrine falcon chicks about to be ringed

As they carried out this despicable act of wildlife piracy, the unhatched chicks’ parents hovered helplessly overhead, their cries echoing across the cavernous pit. Pictured, Peregrine falcon chicks about to be ringed

When Mr Close travels to Abu Dhabi, a gold Rolls-Royce is sent to bring him to the Emirates Palace hotel, where he is installed in the £16,000-a-night presidential suite.

A far cry from the days when this former shop-fitter was so down on his luck that he was homeless.

The falcons he raises enjoy similar luxuries. One photo shows a consignment being flown to Saudi in the cabin of a jet, each bird with its own seat, because their owners feared it would be ‘stressful’ for them to be cramped into the hold.

Of course, the businesses these reputable breeders operate are totally above-board. The international convention regulating the trade in endangered species bans only the import and export of wild-caught peregrine falcons and their eggs.

Even so, some environmentalists baulk at the practice of breeding and training birds of prey to compete in ‘sporting’ events such as 400-metre sky-sprints, judged to precision by high-tech timing devices used in the Olympics.

While traditional hunting with falcons is a Bedouin skill dating back 2,000 years, critics question how these manufactured races — spectacular as they may be — have anything to do with Arab culture.

Their concern is heightened by evidence suggesting this pastime is fuelling a resurgence of the smuggling of wild peregrine falcon eggs.

As I was told by Guy

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