A man angered by bees “taking pollen off his flowers” and “nectar from his trees” cost two beekeepers about $120,000 after their beehives were damaged and went missing.
Del Edwin Ritchie lived a short distance from two sites within the Grey District where the beekeepers kept their hives.
Both built their own hives and marked them distinctively so they could be identified. They estimated each hive - including the honey and the bees within - was worth about $2000.
In early 2019, one of the beekeepers found around seven of his hives had been tampered with and the contents scattered, a District Court decision, released this week, detailed.
Several months later another 20 hives had been damaged and seven had vanished.
That same year, a third-generation beekeeper found eight of his beehives vandalised, components cut from the boxes and thrown into a gully.
A month later, he found 18 of his hives damaged and destroyed, losing him around $15,000 in honey.
Both complainants made statements to police who then went to Edwin’s address in March 2020 where they noted numerous hives around his property.
The police reported he became aggressive and told officers that “other beekeepers could f**k off” and they had no right to have hives in his area taking pollen from his flowers.
Police then searched his property and recovered 69 boxes, 18 bottom boards, 20 lids and other identifiable beehive components, all of which belonged to the complainants.
Three days after the search, the manager of a website that maintains a compulsory register of beekeepers to keep track of a disease that affects hives, said he received a call from Edwin hoping to register as a beekeeper.
Edwin allegedly told the manager that police had come onto his property and taken a large number of hives he had purchased from Farmlands for which he had misplaced the receipt.
Edwin was charged with three counts of entering land used for agricultural purposes without authority and with intent to commit an imprisonable offence in relation to beehives on that land.
The three charges related to the two sites and various time periods.
Edwin denied the charges and a judge-alone trial before Judge Mark Callaghan was held in Greymouth District Court this year.
One witness said Edwin had told him he was going to poison the bees near his home because they were taking nectar from his trees, which the man dissuaded him from doing as it was illegal.
The police officer who arrested Edwin told the court the man had denied taking the hives and that he claimed the hives found at his home were purchased from Farmlands, were secondhand or he had found them on the side of the road.
Judge Callaghan was satisfied the beekeepers’ markings on their hives identified those found at Edwin’s as belonging to them.
“His explanation that the bees were stealing his nectar, in my view, does show some intent to do something to the hives that was illegal and therefore an imprisonable offence.”
Edwin was found guilty and convicted.
He was sentenced to 12 months of supervision and ordered to pay $20,000 in reparation.
Edwin was approached for comment through his counsel.
He spotted the man walking and swerved onto the footpath and hit him.