Bay of Plenty avocado orchardist admits stealing queen bees and mating boxes

Paengaroa avocado orchardist Kenneth Grey Clements pleaded guilty to a theft charge in the Tauranga District Court. Photo / File

A Bay of Plenty orchardist has admitted stealing 10 queen bees and five mating boxes from a neighbour's property.

Kenneth Grey Clements, 68, of Paengaroa told police that he destroyed the boxes and used the queen bees to set up hives for his own orchard.

Clements pleaded guilty to a charge of theft (over $1000) in the Tauranga District Court today through duty lawyer Paul Devoy.

The police summary of facts also revealed that the theft was committed on five separate occasions on a neighbouring property between March 1 and September 11 this year.

Clements, who had been walking his dog along his boundary line, saw the victim had a number of bee mating boxes each containing two queen bees and a colony of bees.

During the offending, he took one mating box, stealing a total of five boxes containing 10 queen bees, the summary said.

The bees and mating boxes valued at $1423 belonged to Kintail Honey Te Puke Limited.

After the first four boxes were taken, the victim set up a security camera which identified Clements as the thief, the police summary said.

Clement admitted the facts as outlined when spoken to by police and said he had destroyed the mating boxes but used the queen bees to set up hives for his own orchard.

Lawyer Paul Devoy told Judge Thomas Ingram that although Clements had prior convictions in 1995/1996, this offending was "somewhat unusual" and "totally out of character".

He said Clements was "effectively a first-time offender" and urged Judge Ingram to convict Clements and order him to come up if called upon for his offending.

That type of sentence is effectively a good behaviour bond, which would mean that if Clements offended again, he could be re-sentenced on the theft conviction.

Devoy also said Clements' letter of apology was earlier given to the police officer-in-charge of this prosecution to be forwarded to the victim.

He said Clements, who owned an avocado orchard with two other people next door to the victim's property, was in a position to pay full reparation.

Judge Ingram convicted Clements and ordered him to pay $1423 reparation today.

He said the sentence imposed, took into account that Clements "had been out of trouble for some time", his age, remorse, apology and the unusual circumstances of the offending.