They were stopped by a fisheries officer near Parua Bay and Ututaonga, who was driving, denied any knowledge of the mussels that were in the trailer. Hei, who initially said he did not have customary permit to take the shellfish, then said he did have a permit, but it was at home. Hei said he needed to gather the mussels for a tangi.
The fisheries officer told the trio to drive to the Ministry for Primary Industry's Whangarei office, and Ututaonga said he knew where that was and would drive there. But on the journey back the trio Hei attempted to organise a retrospective customary permit to gather shellfish and tried to organise access to Otangarei Marae to evade the fisheries officer. Hei told Ututaonga to drive to the marae instead of the MPI office.
The fisheries officer tried to stop them using his blue flashing lights and siren after they instead headed for Otangarei where they were finally stopped and taken to the MPI office.
Hei told MPI that the group had gathered the mussels under a customary permit issued by Freeman Paul for his father's Maori Warden meeting at Otangarei Marae.
He also said they were helped by other people to gather the shellfish, but he was unable to name any of them. It was later found that the customary permit had not been issued to Hei before he gathered the shellfish. The mussels were later returned to Mair Bank.
Judge Treston said the trio were involved in serious offending, and while some might see it as a victimless crime, they stole from a resource that belonged to the whole country.
He said it was one of, if not the, largest amounts of illegal mussels ever detected by fisheries officers, in Whangarei, if not the country and such actions were a real threat to the sustainability of the resource.
"There must be a sentence [imposed on the trio] that deters you and others from the rape of this resource," Judge Treston said.
