Pensioner dubbed Scotland's 'prince of poachers' finally loses right to own firearm.

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A PENSIONER dubbed Scotland’s prince of poachers has finally lost the right to legally own a firearm.
James Kennedy was convicted of poaching for the fourth time last year.
The 72-year-old, who has twice been jailed for the offence, then had his firearms certificate cancelled by police, meaning he could no longer use his £2500 Sako rifle and silencer.
Kennedy challenged the decision but on Wednesday a sheriff threw out his appeal.
The decision brings to an end the illicit career of a poaching legend who was a familiar sight around Fort William in his Jaguar with the registration 5TAG.
Kennedy lives in a £500,000 hillside bungalow he named Tigh na Feidh – Gaelic for House of the Deer.
Locals refer to his house as venison villa.

Sheriff Richard Davidson upheld the police civil action in a written judgment.
He stated that Kennedy “was no longer a fit person to be entrusted to be the holder of a firearms certificate”.
Kennedy told the court his poaching career had started as a 12-year-old.
Last year, Fort William Sheriff Court heard Kennedy had been caught when DNA testing was used for the first time in a poaching case.

Police matched a stag shot illegally on 9000-acre Glenfinnan Estate to blood found in the former fencing contractor’s van.
As Kennedy has been jailed twice for poaching offences local estate owners were shocked when Sheriff Davidson finied him £100 last year.
The sheriff smiled at the details of Kennedy’s Glenfinnan escapade, which he admitted, saying: “It seems old habits die hard.”
When Kennedy’s lawyer told the sheriff there had been a gap of several years in his client’s appearances in court which meant he had been of good behaviour, the sheriff replied, “or wasn’t caught”.

At his appeal, Kennedy told how he started his working life as an assistant gamekeeper but sometimes had to do his boss’s job.
He said: “Sometimes the head-keeper would say ‘I’m off for a dram’ and would not return for two weeks.”
And Morar gamekeeper Robert Grant, 47, who gave evidence for the police, said he only met Kennedy once:“and that was sitting next to him at a table at the Poacher’s Ball at Roy Bridge several years ago”.
Police found out Kennedy had been paid £20,000 by a local game dealer for supplying deer to him for just three years.
Kennedy was unavailable for comment on losing the appeal.

A local estate factor who asked not to be named yesterday commented: “James is an OK guy but a legendary poacher all his days in the west Highlands.
“I think he quite enjoys the notoriety and the title Prince of Poachers. I just wonder if his poaching days are really over despite the loss of his firearms certificate.”
Outside court following his conviction in February, 2015, Kennedy was asked if that was him finished with poaching.
He replied: “Of course,” and winked.
 
'Prince of Poachers'?

Or bloody rogue? Personally, I tend to side with the latter. Convicted of poaching four times, and jailed for the same offence twice? He should've lost his ticket the first time round in my book
 
Think this will stop him ?
As said gotten away with it hundreds of times , been done before but still held a FAC ?
Makes a joke of the system

Paul
 
If he started that young then I am sure he did loose his ticket and then would get it back because of the time laps law. It is sad that this man has lived through what would have been accepted times . A bit like the dog men who one minute could take a deer with there hound and the next they were illegal. Drink driving springs to mind in the beginning it was over looked and as time went on it was quite rightly made a major criminal offence. It seems that time has caught up with him more than the law. I wonder if he will reapply in 5 years time.
 
Apologies for the aside.

Just to broaden knowledge a bit, is there a facility in law to confiscate tools/equipment used in poaching in Scotland as available but sadly hardly ever used south of the border?
 
Perhaps we need to lose the term "poacher" with its connotations of some deprived rural dweller desperately trying to feed a family of starving children and use the far more appropriate title in the modern era of "thief"
 
Obviously a bit of a character. I wonder if his disregard of the law is apparent in other aspects of his life. Is his van insured and taxed? Does he do a side-line in shoplifting or, as many poachers do, stealing anything not nailed down on the land where he trespasses?

A colourful character except to those who he deprives things of, whether it be sport, venison or anything else.
 
Jim Kennedy, Is a relation of my family. He doesn't stay In a half a million pound house. Ànd he didn't earn money as reported. .
But I have a really nice Sako now .
Thanks uncle Jim . You truly are legendary.
 
I learned stalking from a "poacher" and a lot of the old school guys were classed as such as there was no other way to be a stalker and an ordinary working man at the same time when they started out.
i find a lot of people forget where they came from or where they learnt from or there are just a lot of new to the game guys that don't understand how it used to be or what the term poacher used to represent instead of the modern day scumbag with a lamp and visit to the game dealer 5 nights a week. Or it might be as the old saying is " there is none so pure as a reformed whure "
 
Jim Kennedy, Is a relation of my family. He doesn't stay In a half a million pound house. Ànd he didn't earn money as reported. .
But I have a really nice Sako now .
Thanks uncle Jim . You truly are legendary.

:thumb:There will be a few on here who know James better than me and perhaps from a different angle. I met him twice twelve years ago, at a wedding and then at a Burns supper,no idea of his 'status' in the west,probably a figment of imagination by the gutter press, he was an absolute gentleman in my company..I would not recognize him as a 'pensioner' but I suppose we all are when we start to draw it...:D
 
The like`s of Jim Kennedy are the salt of the earth. I don't think for one minute he operated with financial gain in mind. More for the craic of it..
Give him my regards and I do hope he re applies and has a successful application for his licence back in 3 years time and not 5..
But in the mean time im sure he knows plenty of goodfella`s that will still take him out for the odd shot. :thumb:
 
The like`s of Jim Kennedy are the salt of the earth. I don't think for one minute he operated with financial gain in mind. More for the craic of it..
Give him my regards and I do hope he re applies and has a successful application for his licence back in 3 years time and not 5..
But in the mean time im sure he knows plenty of goodfella`s that will still take him out for the odd shot. :thumb:

Here, here. :)
 
This thread reminds me of the people who described Fred Barras as a 'Lovable Rogue' which basically means that he was a thieving piece of human excrement who hadn't yet burgled their house. People who commit a particular type of crime rarely restrain themselves from committing other crimes if the opportunity presents itself. Neither are they going to be doing an impression of Bill Sykes 24/7. A lot of his patients thought Harold Shipman was one step down from a saint, until they found out about his hobby, killing people.
 
I find it really ironic that law abiding stalkers are lauding a man who commits armed trespass and steals deer yet if it happened on their ground .......
 
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