Angus laird sentenced for building makeshift shotgun crow-scarer

The Courier

11-05-2025

An Angus laird who fashioned a makeshift shotgun in a bid to deter crows from munching on his pig feed has been sentenced.
Stephen Mellor's 40-acre Gagiewell Estate in Kellas was scoured by police who uncovered faulty air rifles and a German pistol dating back to the early 1900s.
The 44-year-old was also caught with a military-issue knife outside a Spar shop.
He was fined and ordered to complete unpaid work by a sheriff who warned him of needing 'organisation and discipline'.
Dundee Sheriff Court previously heard a friend of Mellor's flagged to the authorities the laird's 'rambling' and 'goading' WhatsApp messages.
Mellor – who keeps pigs and sheep on the estate, runs a firewood business and lets others shoot on his land – sent a video of himself using the smooth bore 'slam fire' shotgun he'd crafted.
Like Mellor, the friend served with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, which maintains the equipment of the British Army.
Gagie Castle, where he lives, was combed by police and the 'slam' gun was found in an underground chamber in a rifle bag with a rope tied to the drain.
Tests were carried out and ballistics experts ruled it 'could prove hazardous' to anyone firing it.
Two recovered air rifles were found to be 'corrosive' and the search also uncovered pellets and an antique German pistol.
In February, Mellor pled guilty to three charges of possessing the smooth bore slam fire shotgun without holding a shotgun certificate, possessing three air weapons without a certificate and having a knife between August 25 and October 2 2023.
He returned to the dock to be sentenced and solicitor Jim Caird explained his client often welds together farming implements, having constructed a snow plough, a grubbing tool and a trenching device.
'Mr Mellor's initial idea was to make a bird scarer.
'He's extremely embarrassed and anxious about the matter.
'This has all taken place on quite a large estate.
'He's actually been on a curfew for a year and a half.
'He's got an engineering background.'
Mr Caird added: 'One of the reasons he was so upset and he was fixated upon the crows was because the price of feed went up and he was losing a lot of feed to the crows.
'I'm not trying to suggest what Mr Mellor did was reasonable or even sensible but there's a context to it.'
Regarding the knife charge, he said: 'He was working with animals on his nearby farm when he had this knife about him. It's a knife which is a sheepsfoot style.
'It was designed for trimming hooves.
'These knives are issued by NATO or something. They're very popular in maritime navy.
'He simply had it about his person. When he's on the estate, it's something he carries about all the time.'
'I must admit he's not thought very clearly about all these things.'
Sheriff Paul Brown ordered Mellor to complete 300 hours of unpaid work as a direct alternative to imprisonment.
The sheriff also granted forfeiture of a slew of seized items and fined Mellor £1,000 plus a £40 victim surcharge.
Mellor's sentence was imposed as a direct alternative to imprisonment.
The sheriff was shown the makeshift device in court and watched a video of Mellor discharging it.
Sheriff Brown also warned Mellor that working with knives 'requires organisation and discipline.'