Police urge awareness over exotic animal trade

Police in Lincolnshire say they are trying to raise awareness of wildlife crime after investigating a number of offences involving endangered species.

Det Con Aaron Flint, Lincolnshire Police's wildlife crime officer, said: "We've had various different offences committed in Lincolnshire through ignorance."

Items seized or handed over to police during investigations include a rhino horn estimated to be worth more than a quarter of a million pounds, a tiger skin rug and several boxes of ivory.

The global trade in endangered species is estimated to be worth £17bn per year by Interpol.

Flint said he thought increasing awareness might lead to people reporting potential crimes.

"They don't know how serious it is and they don't know the damage it's doing to the populations of wild wolves, wild rhinos, wild tigers."

One of his most high-profile cases involved an endangered juvenile tortoise named Gulliver.

The tortoise was bought by a woman from Boston at a Tunisian market and then brought into the UK concealed inside a cigarette packet.

The case was investigated under the Control of Trade in Endangered Species (Enforcement) Regulations 2018 and the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979.

The woman later received a community resolution.

Flint has also dealt with cases involving parts of dead animals being offered for sale without the required paperwork, including the saw-like snout or rostrum of a sawfish.

"As soon as you advertise an endangered species for sale you commit the offence," he warned.

He also has boxes of ivory from the case of a Spalding man who was jailed for illegal ivory trading and a tiger skin rug, which was handed over to officers after an auction house contacted police to check if they were allowed to sell it.

"To be able sell this they would need either an Article 10 certificate, which they didn't have, or proof it was taxidermied pre 1947."

The tiger is now used by police for education purposes.