Two men arrested for theft at quarantined Waimate farm

TIMARU police have arrested two men — aged 30 and 32 — they say burgled a Waimate farm under Mycoplasma bovis quarantine last month.

Yesterday, Timaru tactical crime unit sergeant Kevin McErlain said some property had been recovered in Timaru, Geraldine and Pleasant Point after the March 24 theft.

The farm, part of the Van Leeuwen Dairy Group where the bacterial cattle disease was first detected last year, was uninhabited at the time of the alleged theft — the equipment had been sterilised and was stored in a container.

A Honda 420 quad bike, three motorcyles — a Suzuki DR200, Yamaha TT80 and Honda CRF70 — a rideon lawn mower, several Makita power tools, two chainsaws, a posthole driller and several other pieces of equipment were stolen.

At the time of the theft, the Ministry for Primary Industries said the property had been been destocked and was going through cleaning and disinfection processes, and that there was no biosecurity risk from the equip ment leaving the property.

But it did not rule out the risk of infection if the incident was to be repeated at other farms that had not been placed under quarantine.

The ministry had been advised of the arrests, police said.

One man appeared in the Timaru District Court yesterday. The second man would appear on Friday, police said.