KEY POINTS:
A man has been fined $1800 and lost his car after taking nine times the legal daily limit of cockles.
The Ministry of Fisheries says Hyug Gyu Park, 46, was stopped at a routine checkpoint in Matakana, north of Auckland, on April 1.
Although he repeatedly told fishery officers there were no shellfish in his vehicle, a search revealed three plastic bags containing many hundreds of cockles.
The legal daily limit in that area is 50.
