Three men fined for taking moss

Press, 7 September 1984, Page 11

Three men fined for taking moss

Greymouth reporter Three moss pickers who admitted taking large quantities of sphagnum moss from the Victoria Park State Forest on two occasions in August and September last year without a permit, were each fined $6OO by Judge Fogarty in the District Court at Greymouth yesterday. The three men charged, Geoffrey Thomas Jacobs, aged 19, of Mawheraiti, Colin Darryl Byrne, aged 20, of Ikamatua, and Anton David aged 24, of Ahaura, were all represented by Miss B. H. McGrane. Mr P. A. Wetherall prosecuted for the Forest Service. The Judge at the end of the hearing refused a request for an adjournment by the Forest Service to allow for details of the $5622 sought in costs from the defendants, to be established. The Judge said that the service had value in the moss seized and which was forfeited to it. There was a dispute between both parties on the value, but it was not inconsiderable and at a minimum would be more than $3OOO, and might be more. Accordingly he would make no order for restitution.

The men, he said, had been apprehended in August using a helicopter and

trucks to lift out the moss, and had gone back in September again. The Judge took into account that they were now working again in the same area, but with a permit from the Forest Service.