Penalties and costs totalling $11,200 have been imposed on Oderings Nurseries Ltd for nine charges of opening its garden shops nationwide on Good Friday in breach of the Shop Trading Hours Act.
The company has been prosecuted for the same offence year after year, and has usually faced the maximum fine - as it did again today in the Christchurch District Court.
The company did not appear at court so the Department of Labour went through formal proof procedures which meant the case could be dealt with in the absence of the defendant.
Judge Brian Callaghan then said: "It is not the judge's job to question the adequacy or otherwise of the law that this defendant company has been violating.
"This is repeat offending. The maximum fine is $1000. That has happened in the past."
He fined Oderings $1000 on each of the nine charges relating to garden shops around Christchurch and in Hawke's Bay, Hamilton, Upper Hutt, and Palmerston North.
He also imposed court costs totalling almost $1200 and a solicitor's fee of $1000.
