Stadium Drone Flyer Earns Britain’s First Conviction for Illegal Drone Use

The scarcity and novelty of quadcopters means that authorities are still taking a fairly hands-off approach to regulating them.
Stadium Drone Flyer Earns Britain’s First Conviction for Illegal Drone Use
An unmanned surveillance drone flies at the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) arms fair at the ExCeL centre in east London, on September 10, 2013. BEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty Images
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The scarcity and novelty of quadcopters means that authorities are still taking a fairly hands-off approach to regulating them. When legal disputes involving drones make the news, it’s usually about vigilantes who got annoyed by drones and decided to take the law into their own hands, rather than stories about law enforcement.

But Nigel Wilson of Nottingham, England, abused the generosity of lax law enforcement one too many times.

Wilson repeatedly flew his drone on wayward trips over and into soccer stadiums, recording games, and uploading videos on YouTube, in flagrant violation of a 2009 drone law, which forbids flying drones over large assemblies of people or within 165 feet of a building.

During one game last September, Wilson flew his drone too close to a mounted officer and startled his horse, which narrowly avoided running into members of the public. Wilson had also flown his drone over the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace, and was eventually arrested last October and charged with illegal drone operations.

On Tuesday, Wilson pleaded guilty to the charges, and is believed to be the first person in Britain to be successfully prosecuted for violating civilian drone laws. The court ordered him to pay 2,400 pounds ($3,720) in fines and damages and forbade him from purchasing, owning, flying, or assisting anyone flying a drone for the next two years.

Parrot Bebop quadcopter drones fly at the Parrot stand at the 2015 IFA consumer electronics and appliances trade fair in Berlin, Germany, on Sept. 4, 2015. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
Parrot Bebop quadcopter drones fly at the Parrot stand at the 2015 IFA consumer electronics and appliances trade fair in Berlin, Germany, on Sept. 4, 2015. Sean Gallup/Getty Images
Jonathan Zhou
Jonathan Zhou
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Jonathan Zhou is a tech reporter who has written about drones, artificial intelligence, and space exploration.
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