Former honorary fisheries officer Chris Venmore is back with MPI but in a different role. Photo/John Stone
The Ministry for Primary Industries has invited a volunteer fisheries officer back to work but not in his old job.
Honorary fisheries officer Chris Venmore, 75, was initially stood down in December last year then stripped of his warrant by MPI for not immediately backing out of an inspection while
being threatened with a knife at Taiharuru.
A man from the group threatened Venmore after he told them some of the catch may be illegal. MPI said he should have withdrawn immediately but Venmore argued he could not as it would have meant turning his back on a man with a knife.
Without warning, he received a phone call from MPI's Whangārei office on December 8, 2017, saying, without explanation, that he was stood down with immediate effect. He was sacked a week later.
Six days later, he received a call at home from a senior MPI official in Auckland to say his sacking had been changed to a "stand down" pending a full inquiry. A mediation, details of which are confidential, was held between both parties and MPI issued a statement this week.
