Whitebaiter appeals conviction for illegal fishing

A Cromwell man is appealing his conviction and sentence for illegally fishing in Fiordland National Park.

Allan Rickard, of Cromwell, is appealing a charge of taking native fish (whitebait) from a national park and possessing nets in Fiordland National Park in 2017 while fishing on the Waituti River, for which he was fined $5625.

Rickard was not in the High Court in Invercargill yesterday when his lawyer Allan Tobeck and lawyers representing the Department of Conservation presented their arguments to Justice Rob Osborne.

Rickard was convicted alongside two other men, but is the only one who has lodged an appeal.

Tobeck said a key element of the charge was that the fishermen were found inside a national park, which could not have been proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

The lawyer representing the department, Pene Williams, said Rickard was told a year prior he could not fish in the area.

Tobeck said when the area was deemed a national park, the foreshore was not included.

Williams said the foreshore area had already been protected under older legislation and therefore was considered national park.

Both Tobeck and Williams drew on a whiteboard in court, detailing their interpretation of what is foreshore.

After a district court hearing in February 2019, Rickard and David Egerton, of Otautau, and Michael Egerton, of Tuatapere, were convicted of the same charges.

Both Southland men were also fined $5625.

It is an offence under the National Parks Act 1980 to carry out whitebait fishing in a national park without a specific authority.

When the men were found guilty by a judge-alone trial, department principal ranger biodiversity Tony Preston said the verdicts sent a message that flouting the rules was unacceptable.

Justice Osborne reserved his decision.