Police advice to our area group was to take it down intact and hand it in asap after removing it, do not get caught doing anything else to them as a trail camera setup around a sett may also have another one setup to watch the first one, as licence holders criminal damage or theft wouldn't be too smart and the people who watch setts are usually part of a bigger group and all know how to use the law to their advantage.
I did ask that what happens if we want to make it more painful for them and suggest that maybe my children would walk around the area's we were trapping and I wouldn't like the thought of people taking pictures in private land of my family, he kept the same advice but did say that if you had concerns that the camera may be there for other reasons apart from looking at wildlife that you can mention that when handing it in and they would then take out the card and if/when the owner turned up to make a complaint about the camera being stolen they would then confiscate their computers and look through their pictures which may be a inconvenience to them.
