Fat fines for sneaky crimes

If you're caught poisoning protected trees you could be fined as much as $200,000. But, if you fancy your chances of getting away with it, remember this: a lot of people carry camera-phones. Rebecca Lewis reports.
Hefty fines and the threat of imprisonment are not deterring people from poisoning trees across the North Shore.
In the latest case a helicopter was needed to lift two poisoned pine trees from a cliffside property in Birkenhead. It cost North Shore City Council $10,000.
Killing off and damaging trees has long been an issue, but the council is worried they are increasing. In the past year, 20 infringement notices have been issued for illegal tree works, such as cutting off branches and poisoning.
The council has received more than 100 complaints related to poisonings and, in a quarter of these, someone has been caught in the act.
Offenders face fines of up to $200,000 or up to two years in prison.
``It's a big problem throughout the city, and we're quite dismayed at the amount of poisoned trees there are,'' says council parks operations manager Mike Weaver.
``But unless the culprits are caught in the act, it is particularly hard to gather enough evidence to prosecute those involved.''
The council has strict policies to protect certain trees from damage and needless removal.
But for some seaside dwellers, the temptation to damage protected trees for better sea views is too attractive to ignore.
In 2005, a Birkenhead man was fined $7000 for chopping 3.5m off his 19.5m kauri and, in August of the same year, a Takapuna resident was fined $4000 for having 6m lopped off a pohutukawa tree to obtain a sea view.
Chris Randall, senior advisor for compliance and monitoring, says the council has had some success prosecuting offenders in recent years.
``We have had search warrants issued for at least two properties in the last two years, and we have investigated a number of other trees on public and private land,'' he says. ``We have a number of suspected tree poisonings that we are currently investigating.''
The council's biggest concern is not being able to prosecute because, in most cases, there is insufficient evidence of poisoning.
``We've had a number of cases this year that have gone nowhere because there was no hard evidence,'' says Mr Randall.
If you suspect a tree in your area may have been poisoned, please report it to North Shore City Council's Actionline: 486 8600.