The two boats had been confiscated and has been sentenced to 100 hours of community service for fishing without a permit and failing to provide proper catch reports. According to a report Leon Warren Lawrence, aged 23, from Kawhia, about 60km southwest of Hamilton, was sentenced on Wednesday in Te Awamutu District Court on four charges under the Fisheries (Reporting) Regulations Act and two under the Fisheries Act.
The court ordered him to hand his two fishing vessels, the 4.9m Uglee and the 4.5m Mapere, to the Crown and sentenced him to 100 hours of community service. Ministry of Fisheries field operations manager Brendon Mikkelsen informed that Lawrence’s offending was a “serious breach” of fishing regulations. Lawrence failed to report what he had caught after multiple warnings issued by the authorities. This was a key part of New Zealand’s quota management system, Mikkelsen said.
Mikkelsen said that Lawrence simply ignored all the warnings and advice and then compounded his offending by continuing to fish when he no longer had a licence to do so. He also said that while most commercial fishers worked within the system, there were some who did not follow the rules.
