A MILLIONAIRE property developer and the manager of a demolition company damaged the breeding site of two species of bat while building a block of luxury flats in Ferndown.

Christopher Wilson, director of Sandbanks-based Avante Developments, made "not inconsiderable savings" by "avoiding the whole licensing procedure" at the former Ickle Angels site in Carroll Avenue.

The site's two buildings were known to contain roosts for pipistrelle and long-eared bats.

Wilson submitted a planning application to redevelop the site, in which he included a biodiversity management plan commissioned by the site's previous owner. The document had an expired date on it.

As a result, the defendant should have commissioned a new plan. Instead, Wilson, who owns a £1.2m flat in Brudenell Road, Sandbanks, hired David Stokes of South Coast Demolition as a sub-contractor, and work began.

A Dorset Police wildlife crime officer was alerted after a local councillor raised concerns about the work, but the roosts had already been destroyed.

Stokes, 53 and of The Close in Charlton Marshall, admitted two charges of damaging or destroying the breeding site or resting place of a wild animal of a European protected species on dates between October 26 2016 and December 24 2016 at Poole Magistrates' Court in December.

He was fined £800 for each offence and ordered to pay costs.

Wilson, 52, initially denied the same charges. However, on the first day of a planned trial he changed his plea, and magistrates committed him to the crown court for a Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) hearing.

On Friday, he appeared before Judge Brian Forster QC at Bournemouth Crown Court.

Prosecuting, Tim Bradbury said "ordinarily" the maximum sentence is an unlimited fine or six months in prison.

However, he asked for a POCA hearing because of the financial benefit to the defendant.

"There are two areas of benefit – principally the cost which he was able to avoid by failing to take mitigating steps when he should have in terms of protecting the bat population on the property," Mr Bradbury said.

"The second part would be any benefit accrued to the defendant as a result of being able to develop the site more quickly than he might otherwise have been able to do. That is more nebulous."

Mr Bradbury said Wilson had avoided "the whole licensing procedure".

Judge Forster asked for recommendations of sentencing authorities to help with the hearing.

However, Mr Bradbury said: “There isn’t anything remotely like it.” It is the second-ever POCA application relating to bats in the UK.

Nicholas Cotter, mitigating for Wilson, argued that the Crown Prosecution Service was "taking an unusual course".

"It is not the company being pursued, but Mr Wilson as an individual," he said.

"There does not seem to have been a fair hand dealt between Mr Stokes and Mr Wilson."

He said the two defendants had been charged with the same offences, but covering a different timeframe. Wilson indicated work should stop at the site on November 17 2016 when he was sent an email by police.

However, Stokes went on with the demolition after that point despite the warning, Mr Cotter said.

Wilson was fined £875 for each offence. He was also ordered to pay a £170 victim surcharge and costs of £500. In addition, as part of POCA proceedings he must repay £2,500 in three months, with 45 days in default.