Mayor Island illegal fisher fined

Posted on 29-06-2012 15:17 | By the real story please

oberserver, Pushing the boundaries is completely different to an honest mistake. Either way a good message shouldn’t cost tax payers 20k when an instant fine could give the same message and the 20k could go on education. It’s a pity this decision needed to go through Dan Rapson, Dave Wills and their boss before it got to a judge who with a bit of common sence says a discharge without conviction is appropriate.Perhaps the three in the middle need a bit of budgeting advise for their department and then the budget allocation could go around quite nicely. How much money is being squandered within this organisation? Wasting money and court time on this issue is out of touch with community sentiment. DOC wants to make otherwise law abiding citizens criminals but all they succeed in doing is wasting time and money. Anybody in their right mind that brought a prosecution with their OWN MONEY and failed would not be contacting the local paper and claiming it as a victory.

Posted on 28-06-2012 16:15 | By observer

I think it is a good message to others who may want to push the boundaries - and this is probably what DOC had in mind.

Posted on 28-06-2012 09:33 | By the real story please

The discharge without conviction shows the lack of seriousness of this offence and the complete waste of time and resources spent by DOC on such a pointless prosecution. This was an honest mistake that could have been dealt with with a warning or a an instant fine. This action shrieks of a department that is either, over resourced or desperate to justify it’s existance under the current enviroment of cost cutting. This case cost the defendants around 7k in costs with probably a similar amount spent by both the justice department and the Department of Conservation. All of this for a guilty plea that the judge thought was bullied out of the defendant and a discharge without conviction. The marine reserves act was never set up to prosecute recreational fishers who make an honest mistake and take the life of one fish. Doc are using the laws available to them with out discretion. There have been very few cases of commercial or intentional poaching in marine reserves nationaly which means the act is doing its job and to apply it the way DOC is now is to use a sledge hammer to knock in a non existant nail. To push for crimanl prosecutions that could have ongoing effects on peoples lives and careers in this instance is grossly out of kilter with the gravity of the offence. I say to DOC " stop wasting money you say you don’t have". This from someone who believes in the benefit of marine reserves.