After police got a report of a car being driven suspiciously outside Whashton, near Richmond, on February 6, the Huddersfield Town academy graduate, who is presently on loan at Fleetwood Town, was apprehended poaching.
North Yorkshire Police say they found a Nissan X-Trail parked adjacent to a field just before midnight.
According to the police, two individuals with big black lanterns and lurcher-like dogs on slip leashes came up to them shortly after. The men’s car and lamps were seized after they were searched.
The two men, Kian Harratt, 22, of Pontefract, and Daniel Luke Dimmock, 34, of Castleford, were later charged with trespassing at night while carrying tools used for poaching. On December 19, the Harrogate Magistrates Court found them guilty.
According to police, they were each fined £1,153 and told to pay hundreds of pounds in additional expenses and extras.
According to Sergeant David Lund of the Rural Task Force of North Yorkshire Police, poaching is a severe crime that causes suffering in rural areas. This case demonstrates that we will stop you and take you to court if you come to North Yorkshire with the intention of poaching.
We can rely on our rural communities’ ongoing cooperation to help us achieve that, so I urge anyone who notices any questionable activity to report it.”
