Save money on a fishing licence? It cost one man big-time, says Fish & Game

Don’t be tempted to think that not buying a fishing licence – then trying to lie your way out of trouble – will save you some hard-earned money.

Eastern Fish & Game officer Anthony van Dorp says that “going down that path” has cost a Rotorua man over $1000 in the Rotorua District Court.

The 26 year-old appeared in court on Monday ( March 11, 2013), on two charges – fishing with no licence, and then giving false details.

Judge James Weir fined the offender $400 on each count, $800 in total, and also ordered him to pay prosecution and court costs.

Mr van Dorp says the penalties handed down reinforce the fact that fishing without a licence can turn into a very expensive exercise. And in this case the offender’s attempt to lie his way out of the fix compounded things, “costing him big-time.”

The cost of managing the region’s trout fisheries along with all the habitat work Fish & Game does for waterfowl and game bird hunting, has to be shared equally across all anglers and hunters, he says. “Fish & Game doesn’t receive any funding from Government and doesn’t make any profits, so everything gained from licences is put back into fish and game management – and this needs to be fairly shared.”

Mr van Dorp says Fish & Game officers have carried out angler checks throughout summer across the Rotorua lakes, and “it’s pleasing to have found the vast majority of anglers doing the right thing.”
ends

© Scoop Media

"Unlawful, Unjustified And Unreasonable": Report Into Urewera Raids Finds Police Acted Unlawfully

Independent Police Conduct Authority Chair Judge Sir David Carruthers said today that the decision by the then Commissioner of Police to undertake the operation in Ruatoki Valley and elsewhere on 15 October 2007 was reasonable and justified.

“However, the road blocks established by Police at Ruatoki and Taneatua were unlawful, unjustified and unreasonable... Police had no legal basis for stopping and searching vehicles or photographing drivers or passengers,” he said...

The report also showed that the detention of the occupants at five properties examined by the Authority was unlawful and unreasonable. More>>