"It's a big burden off my shoulders, not just for me, but my whanau, my hapu, my iwi. It's been on my mind for a long time."
Mr Tepania said he would continue with his conservation and community work, and said he had been "really humbled" by the way people had spoken about him during the hearing.
Lawyer Wayne Cribb told the court his client's only crime was filing paperwork late. There was no breach of quota or attempt to deceive. Commercial fishermen had to file two types of returns each month. Mr Tepania had always been on time with his monthly harvest returns, which could be filed electronically. The other, a net catch effort landing return, had to be posted to Wellington. Mr Cribb questioned why one could be filed electronically and not the other.
A conviction could have serious consequences for Ahipara's Takutai Moana Komiti, a group protecting paua at Tauroa Point which Mr Tepania had chaired since its inception, as well as for his work with a trust helping wayward youth.
Te Runanga o Te Rarawa chairman Haami Piripi told the court Mr Tepania was an "absolute advocate" for sustainability and an oracle of foreshore and fisheries knowledge. He wondered how "a man of such standing could be dragged before the courts in this way".
"From our point of view this is really a serious miscarriage of justice," he said.
Marine researcher Laurie Austen said a conviction and loss of his boat would cost Mr Tepania his livelihood, which was "totally out of proportion" to the offence.
"To a bureaucratic functionary, some late mail might seem like a heinous crime. To the rest of us, it's late mail," he said.
Catherine Murupaenga-Ikenn said at the time of the offences Mr Tepania's mother was terminally ill, his brother was diagnosed with cancer, and his wife was in hospital. Any human being would prioritise caring for loved ones over paperwork, she said.
No one disputed the need to enforce the fisheries management system but the way it was being applied had damaged relations with Maori and the Ahipara community. She questioned whether a more insidious agenda was at play, saying Mr Tepania's warning to a commercial fisher to keep out of a protected area coincided with an escalation of official interest in his case.
Crown prosecutor Phil Smith, acting for MPI, said he was disappointed that several speakers had raised the consequences of a criminal conviction when Mr Tepania was being sentenced on a fisheries offence, not a criminal matter. There was no danger of Mr Tepania losing his livelihood because MPI had made it clear it didn't want his boat. The boat would be forfeited but returned once he paid the costs of the forfeiture advertisement.
He disputed claims no attempts had been made by MPI to resolve the matter with a visit or phone call before charges were laid. That prompted Judge Greg Davis to ask why MPI had not submitted that as evidence.
Judge Davis said the illnesses of close family members meant there were special reasons for the offences, which were at the lower end of scale. A conviction was unlikely to end Mr Tepania's livelihood given that MPI had indicated his boat would be returned, but he agreed that it could affect his community work.
"A man of this standing should not carry a black mark against his name, not should the community organisations he is involved with," he said.
Judge Davis discharged Mr Tepania without conviction but, in order to uphold the integrity of the fisheries quota system, ordered him to pay MPI's costs of advertising the forfeiture of his boat.
When advised that expense would now not be incurred, he ordered Mr Tepania to pay costs of zero dollars.
Legal history made at Ahipara
Last Thursday's court hearing wasn't just a victory for Patau Tepania - it was also a New Zealand legal first.
Mr Tepania's appearance before Judge Greg Davis on six Fisheries Act charges was a special session of the Kaitaia District Court at Roma Marae in Ahipara. Youth court hearings have been held at marae before, but this was a New Zealand first for the district court.
Marae vice-chairman John Paitai said the marae had fought hard for the right to host Mr Tepania's sentencing.
"It's enormous for us ... To be able to speak on behalf of our rangatira on our own marae, is a real landmark," he said.
Thursday's hearing began with a powhiri and speeches by Te Runanga o Te Rarawa chairman Haami Piripi, master waka builder Hekenukumai Busby and Mr Paitai. The whare hui was then converted into a courtroom complete with judges' and lawyers benches and a public gallery occupied by about 40 of Mr Tepania's supporters.
Some witnesses spoke in te reo with their words translated by a court interpreter; Judge Greg Davis paused regularly to explain the legal process, often addressing the public in Maori.
In another change from normal court rules, it was marae elders, not the judge, who decided on a media application to cover the hearing. Media were allowed to remain but filming inside the whare was not.
The translation of witness statements led to some humorous moments, for example when one speaker used a strong term in te reo to describe the quality of postal services in the Far North. The interpreter struggled to find an English equivalent other than "beep" suitable for use in a courtroom, before settling on understated "the postal service is somewhat flawed".
Mr Tepania said holding the hearing in a marae instead of a courthouse created a more level playing ground. It also set a precedent for whanau, hapu and iwi across New Zealand.
