Ag Subsidies Cut for Scottish Landowner Using Pesticides

It's the largest civil penalty imposed under EU legislation in which wildlife protection is a condition for receiving funds from the EU's Single Farm Payment Scheme.

This guy is the third Scottish landowner to have subsidies cut under these regulations.

(Don't worry. He's a millionaire. He'll be okay.)

John Dodd, the multimillionaire co-founder of Edinburgh-based Artemis Investment Management, has lost £107,000 after illegal pesticides were found on the Scottish shooting estate he owns.

He owns the Glenogil estate in Angus and has suffered the largest ever financial penalty under European Union legislation that demands landowners protect wildlife to qualify for farm subsidies.

His 2006 subsidy was docked by a third by the Scottish Government last month because of suspicions that pesticides found on his estate were being used to kill birds of prey.

Mr Dodd denies there has been any persecution of birds of prey on his estate.