A Waikato farmer with a history of environmental offending has been sentenced to home-detention.
Stored waste in disused piggery building awaiting disposal on farm. Photo: Supplied / Waikato Regional Council
Kenneth McIntyre from Kereone, near Morrinsville, was sentenced in the Hamilton District Court on 13 charges of breaching the Resource Management Act and given a term of five-months home detention and fined $100,000.
A trial was held before a jury in June 2021, with the sentencing handed down on Tuesday.
It was the fifth prosecution laid against him by the Waikato Regional Council.
The convictions relate to nine charges of discharging contaminants into the environment, three of breaching court orders that were imposed in previous prosecutions, and one charge of excavating a stream.
Judge David Kirkpatrick made further orders against McIntyre and his partner Cassandra Kidd, who was also convicted in relation to these environmental breaches, of a ban from any further waste being brought onto their property.
Irrigator stationary in paddock. Photo: Supplied / Waikato Regional Council
The case arose as a result of several complaints from members of the public.
As a result of a subsequent council investigation, it was alleged that large volumes of liquid waste had been recklessly discharged into the environment in 2018.
In May 2018, in excess of 1500 tonnes of dairy factory liquid waste was received and it was spread on the land where it could flow into a tributary of the Piako River, causing pollution.
The jury also heard that McIntyre had got $177,000 for receiving the waste products between February and June 2018.
Kidd was convicted and discharged of any further sentence on two related charges for her role in the offending. She had earlier entered guilty pleas.
Ponded waste on paddock surface. Photo: Supplied / Waikato Regional Council
Judge Kirkpatrick said the gravity of the offending in this case was high and that the culpability of McIntyre for his offending was also high.
He said the verdicts of the jury must be understood as rejecting McIntyre's defence that others were as culpable as he was.
Waikato Regional Council's regional compliance manager Patrick Lynch said home detention for environmental offending is very rare.
''This extreme step reflects both the very poor behaviour of this one person, over many years, and the frustration in that he simply has not changed his behaviour."