Two companies have been fined $50,000 each and their directors given non-custodial sentences for draining a protected wetland on the Aupouri Peninsula to extract swamp kauri.
The sentences on Raymond Bird and his company Sovereign Station Trustees and Gary Beckham and Mangonui Development and Civil Construction were handed down by the Environment Court after charges were laid by the Northland Regional Council.
Beckham pleaded guilty to 21 charges and Bird to 16 charges laid under the Resource Management Act.
Sovereign Station Trustees owned 940ha in the wetland known as the Kaimaumau swamp where the breaches took place.
The council issued an abatement notice in December 2010 and an enforcement order from the Environment Court in April 2011 to stop earthworks and/or land clearance.