Not in our hood: Matawai locals foil illegal hunters

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A judge has told two Bay of Plenty men their decision to take a risk and illegally hunt at Matawai was a “stupid and silly enterprise” because local residents there are on high alert for poachers.

Cody Vaughan Marr, 28, of Edgecumbe, and Hiraka Shane Reneti, 26, of Te Teko, appeared together for sentence in Gisborne District Court yesterday.

Judge Warren Cathcart rejected their counsels’ submissions for each to receive suspended sentences and instead imposed terms of community work — 70 hours for Marr, who had a previous relevant conviction for unlawfully possessing a magazine for a firearm last year; and 50 hours for Reneti, who had no prior convictions.

A ute the pair used in the offending was captured on Matawai’s rural security camera system when it entered Moanui Road about 8.30pm on July 28 this year.

Footage showed the ute leaving again at about 3.25am.

Five minutes later the vehicle was also seen and reported by a Rakauroa Road resident, who noticed three deer carcasses on it.

Police who stopped the pair discovered neither of them had a firearms licence. Marr’s previous one had been revoked and Reneti was in the final stages of applying for one.

Marr had a permit to hunt in the Department of Conservation area where they claim to have been but it did not allow them to hunt at night or to use spotlights and thermal optic devices.

Police confiscated Marr’s Remington 700 rifle and Reneti’s Browning B2 Rifle, each of which was valued at about $2000, the court was told.

The men subsequently pleaded guilty to a charge of unlawful hunting and one of being in unlicensed possession of a firearm, which was reduced from unlawful possession.

The two unlicensed firearms charges were slightly different but carried the same maximum penalty — a year’s imprisonment or a fine of up to $15,000.

Judge Cathcart said the starting point for the men’s sentences was the same but the outcomes were different due to Marr’s previous relevant conviction.

Rejecting counsel submissions for suspended sentences, the judge said it would not be punitive enough to deter others from similar offending.

An order was made for the destruction of the seized firearms.