Helicopter company fined $l000

Press, 10 November 1981, Page 7

Helicopter company fined $l000

PA Nelson A Taupo helicopter company has been fined $lOOO in the District Court at Nelson and ordered to pay $4OO expenses after being convicted on a charge of running a wild animal recovery service without a licence.

Plateaux Helicopters, Ltd, denied running the service at Collingwood on June 23. The company, represented by Mr A. D. Barnett, was convicted and fined $lOOO and ordered to pay the Forest Service $402 expenses. Solicitors’ fees and witnesses’ expenses are also to be paid by the company. Forfeiture of equipment seized from the company’s helicopter was sought by Mr D. J. Maze, who appeared for the Forest Service, but no order was made. The evidence was that the company’s Hughes 500 c Helicopter landed near a game freezer on the property of

Mr J. E. Solly in the Collingwood area on June 23 this vear. The pilot was Mr K. Miles and with him was his employer, Mr S. Evans. . The helicopter brought in game — three pigs and one deer— which were taken to the freezer. The animals were in a condition suitable for sale, the court heard. Pleateaux Helicopters did not have a game recovery licence for the South Island. Two Forest Service officers, Messrs H. E. Ferris and P. Borcovsky, gave evidence that the animals were freshly killed. The animals were seized and a rifle and net gun taken from the helicopter. No evidence was called for the defence, but counsel, Mr A. D. Barnett, submitted that the prosecution had failed to prove that the company was running a wild animal recovery service as defined by

the act. Judge Headifen said circumstantial evidence led irresistibly to the conclusion that it had been a commercial enterprise. In submissions before sentence was passed, Mr Barnett said the trip the helicopter made had more of a recreational content about it. The company had not come to the South Island to search for and shoot wild game but on a reconnaissance mission for further business, he said.