Gardener facing prosecution - for releasing squirrels into the wood

When grey squirrels began preying on birds nesting in his garden, Roy Hill thought he had the humane solution. The 68-year-old former Welsh Guardsman set up a cage, captured the troublesome pests, then released them into the wild.

So Mr Hill was astonished to receive a visit from an RSPCA inspector who he said scolded him for breaking the law and threatened to haul him into court.

He was even more outraged to learn that, thanks to a bizarre quirk in the law, he would not be in any bother at all if he had simply shot the squirrels dead, rather than letting them go.

Mr Hill said yesterday: "I couldn't believe what I was hearing. What is this country coming to? It simply defies belief that I could have got into trouble for putting the squirrels back into the wild."

He acted after getting fed up with the grey squirrels damaging bird nests and stealing eggs, so bought a £19.99 humane cage in which to catch them.

Mr Hill, of Sprowston, Norwich, used nuts to entice the squirrels in and then put a sheet over the top to keep them calm. He then took them one by one to nearby Mousehold Heath, and over three weeks released a total of 21 into the woods.

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