Retired man caught selling venison illegally

Photo / Warren Buckland

A Hastings retiree illegally selling meat to cover the cost of his hunting trips has been netted by an undercover seafood operation.

A Ministry for Primary Industries undercover special duties officer was lured to the offender, Terence Arnold Daly, 66, by a caravan offering wild venison burgers at the front of his Hastings home.

The officer would return four times to purchase venison being sold illegally by Daly, a summary of facts states.

Daly is among those who were nabbed in an undercover operation, code-named River, which targeted black market rock lobster activity in Napier and Mahia during September 2014 and August 2015.

He pleading guilty to four counts of selling animal product, namely processed venison, which had not been processed in accordance with the Animal Products Act 1999, namely the requirement to have a registered risk management programme at an earlier court appearance.

Daly was sentenced yesterday at Napier District Court by Judge Geoff Rea to 100 hours of community work for each of the four charges with the terms to run concurrently. Daly's lawyer, Matthew Dixon told the judge his client was not driven by profit and had sold the meat to fund his hunting expeditions.

The summary states that the undercover officer had received information about the illegal selling of animal product.

One afternoon in October 2014 the officer stopped at the food caravan before being invited onto the property by an associate of Daly's.

The officer was invited to look at meat which filled two small locked chest freezers. He paid $20 for a a 569 gram venison cut in a bag labelled "Fallow H 1/4 steak".

Daly told the officer the deer had come from northwest of Auckland. At that time venison was valued at $60 per kilogram and the portion sold was worth about $34.