A Paeroa contracting company has been convicted and fined $32,000 for carrying out illegal earthworks on two farming properties last year.

The charges against Jacobsen Contracting Limited included excavating a watercourse and discharging sediment into water in breach of the Resource Management Act.

Paeroa company Jacobsen Contracting Limited has been convicted and fined $32,000 for carrying out illegal earthworks on two farming properties last year. Photo: File

Waikato Regional Council investigations manager Patrick Lynch says the company was employed to carryout drainage and culvert works on two adjoining farm near Paeroa in April 2015.

'A member of the public driving by the properties alerted the council due to concerns about the scale of the works and possible environmental effects on a wetland area and the Ohinemuri River,' he explains.

Council staff found almost a kilometre of watercourses, including a tributary of the Ohinemuri River, had been excavated illegally and without appropriate erosion and sediment controls being installed.

Significant amounts of soil and sediment were also discharged downstream into the Ohinemuri River and continued for some three weeks after the works stopped.

'Unfortunately we have had a number of cases in the Waikato of earthworks contractors disregarding their own industry guidelines as well as environmental regulations.

The courts are sending a clear message to this sector that they need to play their part in managing our natural resources,” says Patrick.

During sentencing in the Auckland District Court last week, Judge Jeff Smith said he wanted to make it clear to the contracting community that it had a duty to investigate whether resource consents were needed before undertaking works in any watercourses.