'Enormous level of greed' - Chatham Islands man sentenced for unreported shellfish worth over $800k

July 14, 2020

A Chatham Islands fisherman has been sentenced over a large quantity of unreported shellfish, valued at over $800,000.

Kevin Huia Clarke, 73, a commercial fisherman appeared in the Wellington District Court for sentencing on four fisheries charges today.

He has been sentenced to nine months home detention and 200 hours community work over unreported shellfish he’d caught, including pāua, valued at over $800,000.

His fishing boats, worth around $110,000 have also been forfeited along with other property of his, including holding pots valued at $700.

Gary Orr, director of compliance services at the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), says the scale of Mr Clarke’s offending displayed an "enormous level of greed and disregard for the rules".

Mr Clarke had caught and landed 22.2 tonnes of shellfish with a value of over $1,600,000, half of which was unreported.

"This level of theft of precious kaimoana is baffling," Mr Orr said.

His offending began in January 2017 and continued through until March 2018. It was discovered during a routine joint Royal New Zealand Navy and MPI patrol.

"The fish receiver paid Clarke’s fishing operation between $1.1 and 1.2 million for the shellfish taken during this time period. About $550,000 was paid to Clarke. Clarke was estimated to benefit by about $340,000 when his costs were taken into account," says Mr Orr.

He says Mr Clarke was effectively landed outside of the fisheries management system in a way that Mr Clarke deliberately made difficult to detect.

"This type of theft threatens the sustainability of our fisheries and has a direct effect on those who choose to act within the law."

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