A self-described egg collecting addict has been handed a suspended jail-term for illegally amassing a collection of almost 3,000 wild birds’ eggs.

Daniel Lingham, 71, had served two prison sentences for his illegal egg collecting – in 2005 and in 2018 – before he was caught on a wildlife trap camera stealing two eggs from a nightjar nest in 2023.

He was identified in the footage from Holt Lowes in Norfolk, on June 9 last year, by his distinctive walking stick and thousands more eggs were found when police searched his home in Newton St Faith, Norfolk.

Josephine Jones, prosecuting at Norwich Magistrates’ Court on Friday, said Lingham “said he could not help himself due to his addiction to collecting eggs”.

He was sentenced to 12 weeks in prison suspended for 18 months.

Presiding magistrate Matthew Watts said: “We believe it’s serious enough that it does cross the custody threshold but because of the realistic prospect of rehabilitation we are going to suspend (the sentence).”

Lingham was also ordered to comply with a 12-month mental health treatment requirement including 15 rehabilitation activity days.

He was told to pay £183 in compensation to the British Trust for Ornithology, £145 in court costs and a £154 victim surcharge.

Lingham covered his face with his coat hood as he left the court building, and told reporters “no comment”.

Miss Jones said the defendant said he “unfortunately disturbed a nightjar nest and fell into the awful trap of taking the eggs”.

He said that thousands more eggs found at his home address on July 25 were from not taken from the wild by him, the prosecutor said.

She said Lingham said they were from an old collection he had in storage when police last raided his address and from a collection he was given by a friend in Essex.

A total of 2,995 eggs were found within his home, including 2,429 eggs from native birds in his bedroom.

Of those, 548 were from native birds on the amber list of birds of conservation concern, and a further 546 were of the most serious concern on the red list including linnet, green finch, yellowhammer and house sparrow.

A further collection of eggs was found behind a bath panel including a box containing a pair of nightjar eggs with a label “Nightjar 2, Holt Lowes June 9”.

Officers also found identifying books, binoculars and an egg-blowing kit.

He admitted at an earlier hearing to five offences, including taking the nightjar eggs and possessing 2,429 eggs of a non-schedule 1 wild bird under the Wildlife and Countryside Act.

He also admitted possessing 22 Schedule 1 bird eggs, possessing articles capable of being used to identify and take eggs and breaching a Criminal Behaviour Order which banned him from entering Holt Lowes.

Lingham has two previous convictions for similar crimes.

In 2005, he was jailed for 10 weeks after police found a collection of almost 4,000 eggs in his home.

While in 2018, he was found to be in possession of more than 5,000 eggs for which he was jailed for 18 weeks and handed a 10-year Criminal Behaviour Order aimed at stopping him from committing similar crimes in the future.

Miss Jones told the court: “These collectors are motivated by an obsessive desire to find and possess eggs.

“It’s not for financial gain.”

She continued: “They’re kept as trophies for personal gratification.”

“If the whole clutch (of eggs) is taken and the species is in any way rare, the egg collection will have a damaging effect on the conservation of that particular species,” she said.

James Burrows, mitigating, said: “There’s an extensive history of some mental health issues.”

He said Lingham has “expressed being addicted to egg collecting”.

“There’s no monetary gain in any of this,” said Mr Burrows. “It’s that drive, that addiction that keeps people coming back unfortunately.”