A Marlborough dairy farmer has been sentenced to two months' home detention after being found guilty of driving a tractor through a rare and protected wetland, destroying part of its vegetation and habitat..
Philip Woolley was also fined $38,253 when he appeared in Blenheim District Court for sentencing on Tuesday, on charges relating to his actions at the Hinepango wetland near Rarangi in May 2010.
Woolley was earlier found guilty of four charges under the Resource Management of Act of disturbing a riverbed, depositing soil and vegetation in a riverbed and two of using land in a matter that broke a district rule.
He previously owned the wetland, before it was taken over by Marlborough District Council and latterly by the Department of Conservation.
The court heard when he was confronted by a DoC officer, he ignored her request to stop for up to 15 minutes, continuing to destroy trees and vegetation.
Judge Stephen Harrop described Woolley's actions as selfish, arrogant and profit-driven because he was trying to drain water from his own property into the wetland, without permission from DoC.
Ranger 'threatened'
Conservation partnership manager Dave Hayes says he threatened a ranger when she asked him to stop working in the wetland:
"The ranger described his attitude as being aggressive. He refused to stop work; she was intimidated by his actions.
"He swung the bucket in her direction which she took to be an aggressive act and so backed away at that stage and we asked the police to intervene and only at that point did he stop doing what he was doing."
Mr Hayes says Woolley's actions were clearly deliberate.
"He took a digger into the wetland on a Saturday morning knowing full well that it wasn't land that he owned; that it was land that was managed by us and when we got the report he'd already significantly dug a trench into the wetland."
Mayor upset at another case
Marlborough mayor Alistair Sowman says Fonterra hasn't done enough to put a stop to Woolley's polluting practices.
In a separate case, the Environment Court has ruled Marlborough District Council must make weekly inspections of his farm after his "dirty dairying" practice was deemed to be one of the worst they had ever seen.
Fonterra stopped taking his milk for just under 24 hours in punishment last month but has now resumed collections. Mr Sowman says the company needs to do more.
"They've made a lot of noise but really haven't had a lot of action on the ground so I hope this is a message to them that we shouldn't be getting to this stage where we've got to go to court.
"They really need to take responsibility for their suppliers. It shouldn't be the council that's coming down with a big stick all the time."
