A scrap dealer responsible for major pollution in East Tamaki yesterday started a three-month jail sentence.
William Victor George Conway was sentenced to the term last November in the Auckland District Court for breaches of the Resource Management Act.
He had been granted bail pending his appeal.
But yesterday the Appeal Court in
Auckland dismissed his challenge and sent him to jail.
Conway, described as the manager of Scrap for Cash, in Bairds Rd, admitted numerous breaches of the act.
Scrap for Cash was fined $25,000 and the land owner, Millenium Investments, $15,000, 90 per cent of the fines to be paid to the ARC.
Conway pleaded guilty to nine charges relating to contamination and failing to comply with enforcement and abatement notices.
Neighbours notified the ARC in May 2001 when up to three tonnes of oil seeped from the yard into a stream feeding into the estuary.
Conway had ordered a contractor to puncture fourteen 200-litre drums containing used engine oil on the banks of the stream.
Cars, engines and transmissions were being dismantled in the yard, with fuels, oils and hydraulic fluids draining into the ground.
Oil was found in stormwater drains and car batteries were stacked on the ground. Tests showed battery acid present in puddles.
Dye tests confirmed the site's stormwater system drained into the Tamaki Estuary.
Council abatement notices were ignored and enforcement orders by the Environment Court disobeyed.
Yesterday, defence counsel Peter Kaye said Conway should be given "one last chance".
He suggested community service, possibly coupled with a financial penalty, as an alternative to prison.
Conway should be allowed to remedy, in the community's eyes, some of the damage he had done.
Mr Kaye also said the fines on the companies, owned by Conway and his wife, were excessive.
He said disobedience of the court orders was partly because the appellants did not have the financial resources to carry out the remedial work suggested.
But the Appeal Court judges noted Conway had been "thumbing his nose" at the authorities for a long time.
Even while his appeal was pending, Conway continued in business without resource consent and in breach of enforcement orders.
