$2000 fine for baiting a croc
WHITE Rock’s Jamie Charlton has been fined for baiting a croc with a wallaby.
The drawn out case against Charlton came to an end in Cairns Magistrates Court this week after a disputed facts hearing on Thursday.
Charlton pleaded guilty to supplying a dangerous drug and taking a protected animal.
Magistrate Joe Pinder fined Charlton $2000 for using a wallaby carcass to catch the croc, and gave a six-month jail term, suspended over two years, for the drugs charges.
The case had been on a holding pattern in Cairns Magistrates Court since June when the matter was expected to be settled. However, the case in the District Court against croc killer Errol Copley threw a spanner in the works.
Cairns Judge Dean Morzone was asked to set penalty guidelines after Mr Copley was fined $500 in May for causing the death of a 3m saltie in January this year. One month after Copley’s sentence the Queensland Police Service argued the fine should be increased to $7000 as more of a deterrent.
Elizabeth Kennedy, for Queensland Police Service, said there was very little “judicial consideration” in relation to Mr Copley’s case.
“The … purpose in bringing this appeal is really to obtain guidance from this court in relation to the appropriate sen- tences for this type of offending,” she said in June.
She told the district court that a fine was appropriate and submitted it should be about $7000. Judge Morzone deliberated on the matter for another two months increased the fine to $3000 in August.
Mr Copley, who pleaded guilty to taking a protected animal, threw a baited line in the water behind his Deeral farm, hooking the crocodile. Fisheries officers, who have the power to impose a $1200 on-the-spot fine for interfering with wildlife, caught Mr Copley using cameras.
After Judge Morzone’s decision, the Katter’s Australian Party candidate for Leichhardt Daniel McCarthy called the result “disappointing.”
“The (Queensland Government) obviously think that people should be prosecuted for doing the job of the government, which is keeping people safe,” Mr McCarthy said.