Mexborough & Swinton Times – Friday 01 November 1929

Thurnscoe Men Poaching

Three Thurnscoe men were also summoned for breach of the Poaching Prevention Act.

George Green. who had a previous conviction for night poaching, was fined £3 and ordered to pay 5s. costs on a further charge of game trespass: Jesse Crookes and ,John Margison were fined £2 each and ordered to pay 5s costs each.

Defendants pleaded guilty to the first offence, but not to that of trespassing for game.

Mr. C. L. Crawford, who prosecuted, explained that both charges arose from the same set of circumstances, and when asked why they had not pleaded guilty to trespassing for game, defendants said that they were of the opinion that rabbits were not considered as game.

The Clerk informed them otherwise.

P.C. France said that at 5-30 p.m. on Oct. 13, he saw defendants on land at Thurnscoe, and kept them under observation for some time. They left the field and crossed the railway line. He stopped them on the road and found that they had freshly-killed rabbits in their possession.