A Northland man jailed for a year for selling $12,000 worth of pāua on the black market is a "wake-up call" for those illegally plundering the ocean, NZ First MP Shane Jones says.
Kaitāia man William Rini Wikitera, 42, pleaded guilty and was sentenced in the Auckland District Court on two charges under the Fisheries Act.
Wikitera has previous convictions for pāua poaching and was one of two people before the court for paua-related offences committed between March and August 2015.
The offending was discovered through a complex investigation involving MPI fisheries officers and MPI compliance investigators. About $12,000 worth of pāua, illegally gathered in the Ahipara area, was sold in Northland and Auckland.
Jones, who was born and raised in Awanui, said the jail term was a major wake-up call for people systematically poaching pāua in Northland.