A pig farmer who dumped demolition waste into Tauranga Harbour to create a 'park” for his family – and who claimed a hunger strike 'sharpened his mind” – has been sentenced to three months and two weeks' imprisonment.

He was also ordered to pay $5000 towards costs.

Tio Faulkner was sentenced at Tauranga District Court on Thursday, after earlier being found guilty of six charges under the Resource Management Act.

His illegal expansion into Tauranga Harbour was spotted in a 2019 aerial survey by Bay of Plenty Regional Council, and follow-ups revealed a piggery releasing effluent into the water.

Faulkner represented himself, and sentencing was delayed when he said he didn't have documents from support person Georgina Maxwell – who arrived late after having to take a rapid antigen test.

Prosecutor Adam Hopkinson said that it was 'disappointing” the submissions were filed the night before– 'two months too late”.

However, Judge Prudence Steven said that the matters should be dealt with to assure Faulkner's fair trial rights.

Hopkinson said a custodial sentence would be appropriate given the 'seriousness, scale and environmental impact” of the offending.

He also took aim at Faulkner's late request for a discharge without conviction.

'If someone's going to seek a discharge without conviction they'd do it before a conviction has been entered,” he said.

He also rejected Faulkner's claim he should receive 'credit” as Covid-19 restrictions stopped him visiting family overseas, and took issue with referee comments among the submissions.

'Some of those references contain disparaging comments about the prosecution.”

It would cost approximately $100,000 to rectify Faulkner's offending, a bill that would be picked up by Bay of Plenty ratepayers.

'It certainly isn't going to be Mr Faulkner because he doesn't have any money.”

Faulkner then addressed the court, telling Steven he would present 'facts of law, according to my understanding”.

He claimed that the pigs had been removed from the property, and said 'there was no actual evidence of pollution”.

He also claimed the Bay of Plenty Regional Council abatement notice stopped him cleaning up the site, and that he intended to appeal his conviction.

'My few weeks of hunger strike and losing 10kg has helped me sharpen my mind,” he said.

When she began her sentencing, Judge Steven described Faulkner's submissions as numerous, lengthy and 'bordering on being unintelligible”.

His offending was 'sustained and unrepentant”, she said.

The charges stemmed from Faulkner's attempts to illegally expand his whānau's property, and for discharging pig effluent into the Tauranga Harbour.

He used broken concrete to build what amounted to a three-metre high platform, about 30 metres wide and stretching 15 metres into tidal flats.

In total, it covered some 1000sqm.

Faulkner's plans came undone when Bay of Plenty Regional Council spotted the structure during an aerial survey in July 2019.

What followed was the discovery of construction waste – from steel to polystyrene – in the foreshore area, and a stream of effluent.

Faulkner claimed an 'intellectual resource consent” and continued his reclamation, despite two abatement notices.

During an eight-day trial in late July 2021, Faulkner said he'd wanted to 'create something similar to Memorial Park for his whānau to use” and claimed to have access to $10 million in a personal trust.

Experts noted the reclamation's negative effects on plants, animals and their habitat, and the 'very, very high” levels of faecal bacteria in the liquid from the piggery.

Faulkner was convicted of six charges, including reclaiming an area of foreshore and seabed without resource consent, discharging effluent from a piggery where it could enter water, contravening an abatement notice and failing to provide information to an enforcement officer.

-Stuff/Benn Bathgate.