Honey trap
40 beehives and receiving a further $58,000 worth of stolen hives. He will appear in court again this month.
And last July Northland man Justin Howes was sentenced to 300 hours’ community work and six months’ supervision for stealing and receiving beehives.
Howes has a history of honey crime.
He previously admitted stealing three hive boxes in 2014 belonging to a Wellsford beekeeper and receiving 12 hives owned by another Northland apiarist.
Howes also has a conviction for imitating an apiarist, when he used a beekeeper’s name to commercially extract just under 2000kg of honey, valued at between $20,000 and $40,000, in April 2015.
And New Zealand’s rural highways have proven to be trade routes for sticky, stolen stash. Last September Northland police seized a truckload of stolen hives heading south, worth as much as $45,000. The number of reported beehive thefts nationally now reaches more than 400 in the latest six-month recorded period (July 2016 to January 2017), much of which is reported during the honey-producing season from October to February. Packaged honey is also now being targeted from storage facilities and commercial premises. Macmillan believes it is the work of organised criminal groups, defined as three or more people working together. “There is nothing to suggest at this stage that beehive/honey theft is directly linked with a particular group, but we do believe this offending is organised and likely being carried out by groups of people,” he said.
Who’s stealing the honey?
The break-in at Azurelife International has led to three prosecutions.
A 32-year-old man was charged with receiving stolen property and