Pair fined over gas discharge

In what is believed to be the first prosecution of its kind, two refrigeration engineers have been convicted and fined for a reckless discharge of an ozone-depleting substance.

Trevor Herbert Mason and Carl Benjamin Swete were fined $750 each plus court costs in the Auckland District Court.

The prosecution was brought under the Ozone Layer Protection Act 1996.

The court was told the two men were repairing a drink chiller at an Auckland Service Station last September when an ozone depleting substance (chlorodifluoromethane HCFC22, trade name R22) was discharged.

The incident was later reported to the Ministry of Economic Development, which administers the act.

- NZPA