Three men caught with the largest ever illegal haul of mussels in Northland - if not New Zealand - have been sentenced to community work.
James Frederick Ututaonga, aged 41, Malau Whiti Hei, 36 and Jan Watts, 39, appeared in Whangarei District Court on Thursday after pleading guilty to a charge of possessing fish in contravention of the FIsheries Act. Ututaonga also pleased guilty to a charge of obstructing a fisheries office executing their powers or duties and Hei pleaded guilty to a charge of abetting the obstruction of the officer.
The unemployed trio were nabbed after taking 2638 green-lipped mussels - the daily limit is 50 per person - from Mair Bank, off Marsden Pt, on August 31, last year after Hei had borrowed his father's Toyota Hilux ute and 3.5m aluminium dinghy and trailer to gather the shellfish.
Judge Patrick Treston sentenced Ututaonga and Hei to 260 hours of community work and Watts to 220 hours, after taking off 25 per cent of the sentences for their early guilty pleas. He also ordered that the ute, boat and other equipment used by the trio be forfeited to the Crown.
The summary of facts said it took the trio about two hours to fill six baskets with the mussels before they returned in their vessel to McLeod Bay to unload the shellfish into the trailer.