Bird poacher from Willenhall is facing jail

A poacher who set up handmade glue traps to illegally capture dozens of wild birds at a Black Country park is facing a sentence in jail.

Andrew Kemp used a caged goldfinch to lure in similar birds and then catch them on lime-sticks in woodland off Villiers Street, Willenhall.

The 36-year-old who works as a baker was secretly filmed by the RSPCA special operations unit who found the set-up where wires were coated in vebicolla and put into the ground, the court heard.

Seeds were spread as bait for the goldfinches which would get stuck. Officers had received a tip-off about Kemp and monitored him on one other occasion before being caught on December 16 last year.

When they visited the father-of-three's home in Wednesfield Road, Willenhall, a total of 23 goldfinches and a bullfinch were discovered in a garden shed.

Kemp pleaded guilty to seven offences relating to the possession of wild birds, using a trap to take a bird, keeping a goldfinch in a confined small cage and having items to commit a wildlife offence at Walsall Magistrates Court yesterday.

Footage was shown to the court and the case was adjourned until June 24 for reports at high community level ­- although a prison term was not ruled out. He was granted unconditional bail.

Presiding magistrate Brian Benton said: "We do feel the number of offences concerned and aggravated features has crossed the custody threshold."

Mr Glenn Cook, defending, said there was no intention to kill or injure the birds and just to take them away. All the birds were released back into the wild in January.