A farmer who blew up a badger’s sett has been ordered to pay £2,800.

David Botting, 68, used a device known as a rodenator which sprays propane and oxygen into burrows and then ignites the gases.

Botting used the machine at Horse Shoe Wood, Island Road, Upstreet, to collapse the sett.

But it is illegal to use rodenators on badger setts and he was prosecuted by the RSPCA.

At Canterbury Magistrates’ Court Botting, of Wall End Farm, Upstreet, admitted interfering with a badger sett.

Jim Richards, prosecuting for the RSPCA, said: “The aim is to use the rodenator to collapse the burrows. It’s an extremely invasive procedure.”

Botting said he thought the burrows were being used by rabbits and that he had tried to ferret them out before using the device.

He must pay a £1,600 fine and £1,200 costs.

After the case RSPCA inspector Teresa Potter said: “It is vitally important that farmers carry out an environmental assessment before using these kind of tools. It is breaking the law to interfere with a badger sett.”