A former investment manager has been prosecuted for destroying bat roosts whilst converting a disused church into an eco-home.
Jonathan Wedge left London finance in 2015 to become an author, according to The Telegraph. The father of two has since started a social media account sharing his and his wife’s renovation of a Grade II listed church.
St Thomas’ in Dorset was built in 1859. However, the building had been derelict for years, and suffered subsidence in the 1970s. Its eaves have become home to several bat species, protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
The couple planned for it to become their eco-home, with heat pumps and solar panels.
However, a social media video posted by Wedge showed him renovating the church’s loft during December, the peak of bats’ hibernation season.
Disturbing the wildlife after October, but before the following April, is illegal.
Wedge has now pleaded guilty to four counts of damaging or destroying bat roosts, one for each species of bat affected.