The owner of an upmarket glamping site has been arrested after he dismantled bird-scaring guns he claims were deliberately aimed at his guests.
Nigel Marsh, 59, also says that rotting animal carcasses were ‘thrown into the hedges’ surrounding the property, causing a stench to drift over the camp.
The gas-powered guns generated deafening 130-decibel bangs every twenty minutes during the day, according to Mr Marsh.
He claims he took matters into his own hands in August after police failed to act, disabling the devices and storing the parts he had removed.
The married father-of-three was then arrested at his home late on a Saturday night in October.
He claims he was ‘treated like a common criminal’, with his belt and shoes removed for his own ‘safety’ and his fingerprints taken before spending two hours in a jail cell.
Mr Marsh was released on bail and has now learned the case has been passed to the Crown Prosecution Service.
He told the Mail: ‘I expected the police to look at it and decide it was a nothing case. Instead, I was treated like a common criminal.’
Glamping site owner, Nigel Marsh, was arrested after removing a bird scarer from a neighbouring field that he claims was one if three pointing towards his campsite in North Norfolk
The 59-year-old claimed the scarer was being set off every 20 minutes between 7am and 7pm (pictured: A bird scarer similar to the ones Mr Marsh disabled)
The scarers were allegedly pointed ‘down into the bowl of the quarry’ where his guests sleep, rather than towards land where crops would be sown (pictured: A pod at the Dam Hill Plantation site in Norfolk)
He added: ‘If it goes to court, I will plead not guilty.’
The businessman, who runs My Mini Break – which offers short stays at cottages and camping and glamping sites across Norfolk – opened the site at Dam Hill Plantation in Edgefield, near Holt, last year.
He says the three guns – designed to scare birds away from crops – were set up around the perimeter of the land he rents in March, with two just 50ft away and the other about 150ft away from the glamping site.
They were allegedly pointed ‘down into the bowl of the quarry’ where his guests sleep, rather than towards land where crops would be sown.
‘I tried to ignore the issue and wasn’t allowing it to become a problem, but the complaints from my customers increased and it was becoming harmful to my business,’ Mr Marsh said.
‘I had mothers, children and dogs scared because of the bangs. They would go off every 20 minutes from 7am to 7pm at night. I feel I have been under attack.’
He also claimed dead deer, rabbits and hares were dumped beside the site and the water supply switched off on several occasions – after someone turned the valve located on a grass verge.
‘This is a rural location, so it’s not children wandering around doing it,’ Mr Marsh added.
Mr Marsh said he contacted Norfolk Police about the bird scarers in June but was told there was ‘no crime’
He also claimed dead deer, rabbits and hares were dumped beside the site and the water supply switched off on several occasions
He said he contacted Norfolk Police about the bird scarers in June but was told there was ‘no crime’.
He eventually removed a part from the two guns closest to the property and placed them in his grain store for safekeeping, expecting to be able to reason with the owner – whose identity he didn’t know at the time – at a later date.
Two months later, on October 12, two police officers arrived at Mr Marsh’s home and arrested him.
A spokesman for Norfolk Police said: ‘We can neither confirm not deny the name of anyone arrested – we only name upon charge.’
In 2015, Mr Marsh won £25,000 compensation from Cambridgeshire Police when the force settled on the eve of a county court hearing into allegations of false imprisonment, assault and malicious prosecution.
The then-publican’s solicitor claimed police wrongly took sides in a business dispute.
Last year, Mr Marsh was left out of pocket following a planning dispute about another glamping site he owns in coastal Hunstanton.
West Norfolk Borough Council dropped a case against him, leaving him with a £130,000 legal bill.