A property development company convicted of destroying a bat habitat near Edenbridge has been ordered to pay penalties totalling more than £20,000.

Kent Police’s Rural Task Force carried out an investigation following allegations that bat roosts and resting places were unlawfully lost in 2016, during demolition for new housing at Eden Hall, in Stick Hill.

Enquiries revealed an ecology survey had been commissioned by Knightspur Homes to support a planning application for the site and that this showed the presence of a number of species of bats.

One of the buildings identified in the survey as containing roosting bats, was then demolished.

However, the work was carried out without a required European Protected Species Mitigation Licence, which is issued by Natural England.

The licence is necessary where demolition or renovation will disturb, destroy or remove bat roosts.

Knightspur Homes pleaded guilty at Sevenoaks Magistrates’ Court to three charges of damaging or destroying a breeding site or resting place of a wild animal, of European protected species.

A sentencing hearing then took place at Maidstone Crown Court, where the company was fined £12,000 and ordered to pay costs of £3,036.

On top of this Knightspur Homes must also pay £5,285, following a confiscation order under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

This amount was deemed by the courts to reflect what Knightspur Homes had benefited from, in not carrying out the correct legal processes and checks during demolition works.

Police constable Wayne Wright, of the Rural Task Force, said: "A verdict like this is certainly rare, but also very important in terms of safe-guarding threatened species in the future.

"The European Protected Species Mitigation Licence is one of a number of stringent and wholly necessary regulations which serve to protect our environment and wildlife from unlawful harm and destruction, by developers.

"Obtaining a licence is not simply a box ticking exercise which can be wilfully ignored or forgotten about and therefore I’m delighted our investigation has now succeeded in securing these verdicts."