A FORESTRY worker convicted of digging for badgers has escaped a jail sentence, but a magistrate has warned others tempted to do the same that they not be so lucky.

Gary Lee Haslam, 29, who was also found guilty of cruelty to his dog, which suffered nasty facial injuries, was given 100 hours community service and put on a four-month curfew - believed to be the first of its type imposed at Burnley magistrates court.

Haslam, of Moorend, Clitheroe, was also banned from keeping a dog for five years and told to pay £1,200 in costs.

His dog, which has been looked after at boarding kennels, was forfeited and stipendiary magistrate Michael Abelson decided the RSPCA should decide its future.

The defendant, who must now stay in between 9.30pm and 6am for the next four months and wear ankle and wrist bracelets, was convicted after a trial of the offences, which took place at Aitken Wood, Barley, on March 6 last year. Sentencing Haslam, Mr Abelson said what he had read about the defendant in pre-sentence reports he had been just about persuaded not to send him to prison but his liberty must be restricted.

He told Haslam: "What you did was very, very wrong indeed and I don't want to send the wrong message out to anybody who might contemplate doing what you did. If I come back to Burnley to try anybody else for such offence on conviction I will send them to jail. That message must be heard loud and clear."

The court had been told Haslam had been seen by police coming out of a wood wearing camouflage clothing, and his dog was bleeding from the mouth and eye. The defendant said the terrier had disappeared into a hole and he had dug her out.

While digging, he claimed, he saw a fox vault from the hole followed by the dog. Officers later found the defendant's spade and iron bar near to an active badger sett.

Haslam said he had never seen a badger but Mr Abelson told the hearing he did not believe his evidence.

Granville Rooley, defending, said Haslam had had working dogs virtually all his life and a ban would be a severe restriction.

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