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A former reality TV star has lost a £500,000 appeal trial against two bird breeding brothers after a ruling was made that his “negligence” led to the deaths of three of their prize falcons.
Barnes Thomas, 40, appeared on Bear Grylls’ survival skills show. Island in 2018 before he moved from London art dealer to farmer in the picturesque Cornish village of St Just.
However Mr Thomas, who once described himself as potentially the “most hated man” in his village, soon found himself embroiled in a “bitter” dispute with neighbors Martin Nicholas, 43, and Scott Nicholas, 45.
The Nicholas brothers, who run their racing falcon breeding business, Raptors of Penwith Ltd, based next to Thomas’ land, blamed him for the death of their prized birds.
They claimed that noisy construction work in the neighborhood had scared the falcons to death.
Among the dead birds was a race winner worth £150,000.
The Nicholas brothers own the falcon breeding business Raptors of Penwith Ltd. (Courtesy of Champion News)
The brothers filed a lawsuit through their company. Mr Thomas and his company Upper Cot Estate Limited were subsequently ordered by the Bristol High Court to pay approximately £500,000 in compensation and costs.
Mr Thomas appealed the decision, arguing it was “unfair” to hold him responsible for the stress-related deaths of the “incredibly sensitive” birds of prey.
However, his appeal was rejected by the Court of Appeal, which upheld the original decision and the substantial financial penalty.
“This appeal is yet another chapter in a long-running saga that has been time-consuming and costly for both sets of claimants,” appeal judge Lady Justice Whipple said in her decision.
Mr. Thomas is a former art dealer who appeared on Island in 2018, later calling it “the worst experience of my entire life” after packing a velvet coat, sleeping in an anthill and accidentally burning my socks in a fire.
Brought up on a cattle farm, he later became a self-employed farmer on the outskirts of the idyllic Cornish village of St Just, near Land’s End.
But he soon found himself at war with his neighbours, falconer brothers Martin and Scott Nicholas, over claims his noisy building work had caused the deaths of three birds.
The Nicholas brothers work with birds of prey in the surrounding area, breeding gulls and peregrine falcons, which they sell for participation in falconry races in Dubai.
An aerial photograph showing the scene of a dispute between Barnes Thomas and falcon brothers Scott and Martin Nicholas. (Courtesy of Champion News)
After hearing that work on Thomas’ land had caused the deaths of three gyrfalcons, a judge in April 2025 ordered him to pay his neighbors Raptors of Penwith Ltd about £300,000 in compensation and interest and more than £180,000 in legal bills for the breeders, on top of his own legal costs.
Delivering judgment following a nine-day trial in the High Court in 2025, Judge Jonathan Russen K.S. stated that the “bitter” row between the three men had “gained real momentum… in a relatively short period of time.”
Mr Thomas “proved to be a controversial neighbor” by creating a lake on his land and temporarily removing tiles on a public footpath, which sparked “opposition in the wider area”.
Mr Thomas and his neighbors, whose aviary is next to his company’s site, were in court after claiming noisy work in the shed and work associated with his scaffolding business effectively scared three prized birds to death.
The brothers sued for nuisance and negligence, alleging that noisy work on Mr. Thomas’s land during their birds’ breeding season resulted in the death of birds, a reduction in overall breeding, and loss of eggs, with some birds damaging them.
For three days, the birds had a JCB bucket in their sight, which Scott Nicholas said caused them to “go crazy at the sight of this alien object.”
Through their company, they said the actions breached the duty of care to “prevent falcons from being harmed by excessive noise or visual hazards, particularly during the breeding season.”
Ruling on the nuisance and negligence claims, Judge Russen said he was satisfied that the actions of Mr Thomas and his company Upper Cot Estate Ltd (UCE) caused the deaths of the three birds.
Martin Nicholas (Courtesy of Champion News)
He said Mr Thomas had been told March to June was a time to avoid excessive noise and visual disturbances, but videos taken in the incubation chamber during construction work at his barn showed “the noise was upsetting the birds”.
“It cannot be said that these activities relating to the construction of the shed were outside the normal and general use of agricultural land – but they were carried out without due regard to the breeding season of Penwith’s predators,” he said.
Regarding the lifting of the excavator bucket, he added: “The bucket was raised for inspection by an on-site engineer.
“Because the bucket was raised next to the aviary, during those three days the machine disrupted the field of view of at least some of the birds in the western paddocks.
“The placement of an excavator within the line of sight of birds on 7 April 2022 was entirely inconsistent with ensuring that Penwith raptors were not caused undue nuisance.”
The judge found that the three gyrfalcons died as a result of “stress caused by the harm” and awarded compensation against them.
Appealing to three senior Court of Appeal judges, Mr Thomas’ lawyer Tom Weeks KC. said in February that Judge Russen had made his decision completely wrong.
He said Mr Thomas’s use of the land to build a shed and store materials for his scaffolding business was a “usual and customary use of the land”, while the brothers used their land for a “particularly sensitive trade”.
It would be “unfair” if the neighboring bird breeding brothers were allowed to restrict the use of his own property – “to effectively appropriate his neighbor’s land as a buffer to protect sensitive trade.”
The Nicholas brothers run their raptor business on adjoining land in St Just, Cornwall. (Courtesy of Champion News)
He compared it to London Zoo, which moved its giraffes to the residential area of Kilburn in north London and then sued local residents if they were not quiet during breeding, or an observatory that moved into a village and told residents to turn off their lights at night.
“The learned judge should have dismissed ROP’s claim for nuisance on the simple application of the common law principle that ‘a man cannot increase the liabilities of his neighbor by applying his property to a special purpose, whether for business or pleasure,'” he said.
In their decision on the appeal, the three judges gave separate decisions: Lady Justice Whipple said Mr Thomas and his company were liable for nuisance and negligence, Lord Justice Nudgee said they were only liable for negligence, and Lord Justice Moylan found them not liable at all – with the result that they were still liable for negligence and their appeal was dismissed.
“Parking an excavator on your own land is a perfectly normal thing,” Lord Justice Nudgee said.
“But the judge found that he should not have been left near the enclosure: that was not the only place where he could have been towed for the purpose of an engineer’s visit, and even if it had been, he should not have been left there with the bucket raised.
“In other words, leaving him at that location with the bucket raised was not necessary for the defendants’ purposes and was not made ‘convenient’ in the sense that all reasonable care was taken to avoid causing undue nuisance to their neighbors.
This, the judge said, was “entirely inconsistent with ensuring that Raptors of Penwith are not caused unnecessary inconvenience.”
Agreeing with Lord Justice Nudgee’s finding of liability for negligence, Lady Justice Whipple said Mr Thomas and his company “should not be able to act in complete disregard of the interests of their neighbors as they did.”
She added: “In my opinion, this dispute was resolved by the judge on April 8, 2024. He rejected the defendants’ arguments and the expert opinion.
“It found that plaintiffs used their land as part of ROP’s activities in an ordinary and customary manner, that defendants acted in a manner that materially interfered with that use through negligence, and that ROP suffered loss and damage as a result.”
Lord Justice Moylan said he could not accept any liability for negligence or nuisance, but due to the decisions of the other judges the appeal was dismissed.