Sheep rustlers to pay compensation

Two men who stole and slaughtered dozens of sheep in a filthy garage will each have to repay farmers $4567 after serving 10 months in jail.

John Richard Kaka, already in prison for two years for other offences, and John David Dunick, were sentenced by Judge Bridget Mackintosh in Napier District Court yesterday.

Kaka will begin his sentence after finishing his current one.

Dunick, Kaka and Desi James Cook , all 23, were caught by police on May 31 as they drove to Flaxmere with 14 sheep stolen from a nearby farm and stuffed into a Mazda 626 car.

Police prosecutor Josh Lucas told the court that the sheep were stacked on top of each other, with two of the men lying on top of them "so they could all fit in". Two of the sheep - one packed into the car's spare tyre cavity and one in a footwell - had suffocated.

Kaka and Dunick admitted eight charges of burgling farms, two charges of cruelty that caused the deaths of two sheep, and one charge of ill-treatment of 14 sheep.

Cook was sentenced to four months' home detention and 100 hours of community service on four counts of burgling farms and three of animal cruelty.

Mr Lucas said the men had been "fleecing" hardworking farmers around Flaxmere for five months before they were caught.

They had killed the animals in an "incredibly unhygienic" situation, slitting their throats and gutting them on a filthy garage floor before hanging the carcasses and burying the offal on the property.

It had been an organised operation to supply meat for cash. Since the arrest of the three men, reports of sheep theft around Flaxmere had dropped by 30 per cent, Mr Lucas said.

Kaka, Dunick and Cook, each the father of three children, told police they stole to feed their families and get some cash.

Dunick's lawyer, Eric Forster, told Judge Mackintosh that burgling a farm paddock or commercial building was not as bad as going into someone's house and stealing items of sentimental value, but the judge said the three had caused huge "emotional, financial and general upset" to their farmer victims.

"One spoke of the blood, sweat and tears that go into building up a livestock farm. It takes tenacity and hard work.

"You might think you can go and help yourself to other people's property, but it does have consequences," she said.

She gave the men credit for their early guilty pleas.

- NZPA