Fine for sheep starvation

Leaving 1400 sheep to starve has cost a PGG Wrightson livestock manager and auctioneer more than $20,000.

Neville William Clark, 46, on Monday pleaded guilty to leaving the sheep on a 412ha forest block south of Gisborne. Yesterday, in Gisborne District Court, he was fined $11,000 and ordered to pay $9700 in costs.

Clark took out the grazing lease on a block south of Gisborne in March 2008, stocking it with about 1500 sheep. A few months later, an investigation found numerous dead and malnourished sheep. Just over 700 of the 1500 sheep were found alive.