A Bluff kina-processing company has been ordered to pay more than $93,000 in fines and costs for what an Environment Court judge has described as ''deliberate and prolonged offending''.
Cando Fishing Ltd, whose sole director is Campbell McManaway, had denied 19 charges of illegally discharging kina processing waste into a drain and then into Foveaux Strait between January and November 2011.
The company was found guilty by Judge Bryan Dwyer of 17 charges after a defended trial in Invercargill last month and was sentenced yesterday. The kina factory was part of what once was the Ocean Beach freezing works.
In December 2010, Environment Southland received a complaint about a strong smell near the old freezing works.
Staff found Cando was discharging kina offal, shells and wash-down water into an old freezing works drain which led to the sea.
Cando was issued with an abatement order.
It installed a 9000-litre holding tank and Mr McManaway said he would have the waste collected by contractor Cleanways and disposed of at the Invercargill City Council wastewater ponds.
However, evidence was given at the trial by a former Cando employee that the tank had a tap fitted and it was his job to empty the waste directly into the drain two or three times over two days, while kina processing was under way.
Cando said Cleanways had taken waste to the city waste ponds after May 2011, but waste pond delivery records showed Cleanway had delivered only four loads from the Cando factory, all in November that year.
Appearing on behalf of Environment Southland, counsel Barry Slowley asked for a starting point for fines of $170,000 to reflect Cando's ''deliberate and persistent offending'' and its apparent deceitful behaviour in trying to cover up the illegal discharges by saying waste had been taken to the ponds when it had not.
For Cando, counsel Michael Morris suggested a starting point of $150,000, reduced to $50,000 if the court was prepared to take into account the costs the company had faced since 2011 to connect the factory to the Bluff sewerage system.
Cando also had two previous convictions for illegally discharging waste from the plant, Judge Dwyer said.
He convicted and fined the company $90,000 plus costs. with 90% of the fine to be paid to Environment Southland.
