Campers at a Coromandel beach nabbed a Tauranga marine contractor who was later convicted and fined for possessing more than 100 undersized scallops.
At the end of a two-day hearing in the Tauranga District Court this week Glen Ladkin, 57, was found guilty of possessing 285 scallops, ofwhich 120 were undersize, when the daily limit is 20 per person.
Judge Heather Simpson fined Ladkin more than $2000 in fines and costs.
Five people camping at Kuaotunu beach, Coromandel, last January, told the court they had used binoculars to watch Ladkin row a dinghy to a small buoy which was attached to a rope and proceed to pull up a large sack on board the vessel.
They then saw Ladkin roll the sack back overboard when he apparently realised he was being observed, then row the dinghy ashore.
One of the campers swam to the buoy and brought the sack of scallops ashore.
Later, Ladkin returned for the sack, but one of the women in the group saw him approaching the sack and sat on it.
The woman who sat on the sack told the court Ladkin had firstly offered to share the scallops with her, then said the scallops were for elderly people.
When she refused, Ladkin untied the buoy and walked away with it.
Ladkin told the court that he only approached the sack of scallops out of curiosity. He denied offering scallops to the woman.
Senior fisheries prosecutor, Morgan Dunn, told the court Ladkin had previous convictions for fisheries matters and the number of scallops in this case was 14 times the daily limit.
Auckland District compliance manager, Ian Bright, said the sentence was a timely reminder at the start of the scallop season to stick to the bag limits and size limits.
