Bay of Plenty quarry and landowner fined $272,000 after unlawful work

Pumice quarry business Hamiltonnz Ltd, in Old Coach Rd, Paengaroa, has been fined $80,000 after unlawful quarrying in 2022.

A Bay of Plenty quarry business, the company director and one of the landowners have been fined $272,000 after extracting huge amounts of pumice in breach of a resource consent.

Despite multiple abatement and infringement notices by Western Bay of Plenty District Council, Hamiltonnz Ltd director Benjamin Hamilton, his father, Stephen Hamilton, and one of the landowners continued to operate the business unlawfully for seven months.

Hamiltonnz Ltd and Benjamin and Stephen Hamilton each pleaded guilty in the Environment Court at Tauranga on a charge of using a rural-zoned property for quarrying in contravention of Western Bay of Plenty district plan rules and Section 9 (3) of the Resource Management Act.

The pumice quarry is in Old Coach Rd in Paengaroa.

Benjamin and Stephen Hamilton also admitted two charges of contravening an abatement notice issued by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council.

The maximum penalty for Hamiltonnz Ltd’s charge is a fine of $600,000 and two years’ imprisonment, or a fine of $300,000 for each charge admitted by the Hamiltons.

The court heard the defendants breached terms of their 2008 resource consent, which set annual limits on how much product could be removed from the quarry and truck movements, and operated the quarry illegally from February 1 to August 31, 2022.

Environment Court Judge Sheena Tepania’s written judgment was released to the Bay of Plenty Times last week after sentencing submissions were made by the council’s lawyer, Victoria Brewer, at a hearing in September.

In 2021, the council received complaints about the volume of truck movements associated with the quarry and requested the pumice removal and vehicle movement records from Benjamin Hamilton.

These records showed more than four times the allowable amount of pumice was quarried from January to May 2021 and abatement notices were issued to Stephen and Benjamin Hamilton on June 30, 2021, requiring them to stop operating the quarry from October 1 that year.

Yet the defendants kept operating and were issued three infringement notices for breaching the abatement notices.

Council also issued further abatement notices to Stephen Hamilton in June and August 2022.

After further similar complaints in early 2022, the council sought further pumice extraction records, which showed more than 10 times the annual limit was quarried between January and March 2022, and two further abatement notices were issued in June that year.

Hamiltonnz Ltd pumice quarry's entranceway at 730 Old Coach Rd, Paengaroa. Photo / Supplied

The council also set up a surveillance camera outside the quarry and in September 2022, further company records were sought.

The company records showed more then 28 times the maximum annual allowed limit of pumice was extracted from February 1 to August 31, 2022, and truck movements were more than nine times the consent condition.

Based on evidence provided to the council by the defendants’ customers, at least 89,821 tonnes of pumice was removed from the quarry during that period.

Hamiltonnz Ltd’s bank records showed the defendants earned $1,176,000 for the pumice removed between February 9 and November 7, 2022.

Brewer submitted the defendants had made a “conscious decision to put commercial gain above their legal and environmental obligations”.

She urged Judge Tepania to impose penalties that had “sufficient financial sting to deter them and others from ignoring their legal obligations in resource consents”.

Brewer said while a new resource consent was granted a year after the 2022 offending that authorised far larger volumes of pumice extraction and heavy traffic movements from the quarry, that “did not reduce the defendants’ culpability”.

Environment Court Judge Sheena Tepania: "I place their culpability as high." Photo/ Myjanne Jensen

Judge Tepania said she found Stephen and Benjamin Hamilton’s conduct was “deliberate and without regard to the effects of their actions.

“I place their culpability as high. Both were involved in the business and it cannot be said that one was unaware of what the other was doing. They both placed commercial gain above legal and environmental compliance.”

She convicted all three defendants and after allowing a 20% discount for their guilty pleas, she fined Hamiltonnz Ltd $80,000 and ordered the company pay $143 court costs and $113 solicitor fees.

She also convicted Stephen and Benjamin Hamilton and fined them $96,000 each and ordered them to to pay $143 court costs and $113 solicitor fees on each charge.

She directed that 90% of the fines be paid to Western Bay of Plenty District Council.

Sandra Conchie is a senior journalist at the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post who has been a journalist for 24 years. She covers mainly police, court and other justice stories, plus general news. She has been a Canon Media Awards regional/community reporter of the year.