Company fined $14,000 for hacking kowhai tree

A Wellington development company that ordered the hacking of the branches off a protected kowhai tree has been fined $14,000 and ordered to replace the tree.

OEC, owned by brothers John and Michael Chow, had all the branches cut off the tree in Wellington's Tory St by the time police and council officers arrived to stop them on December 6 last year.

In Wellington District Court today, Judge Gordon Whiting fined OEC $14,000, ordered it to pay $452 to Wellington City Council and $130 in court costs.

The company was also ordered to replace the attacked tree, maintain it for five years and install a plaque at the foot of the new tree outlining its history.

The kowhai tree was 70-years-old and heritage-listed.

- NZPA