Major paua poaching case fails

The Ministry of Fisheries' war on paua poaching has suffered another blow with the collapse of a major prosecution.

Takeaway shop owner Sandy Feng Lan Morfee, 48, and her husband, electrical engineer Peter John Morfee, 54, yesterday had the charges against them dismissed in the Wellington District Court.

Judge Mike Behrens threw out the undersized paua charges as an "abuse of process".

He dismissed the others on the grounds the ministry had not proved the shellfish were taken illegally.

Fisheries officers had found the Morfees with 184kg of paua.

The developments come after the ministry's Operation Pacman to stem paua poaching unravelled after a legal loophole was found last year.

More than 20 men who had pleaded guilty to poaching charges and served jail terms have had their convictions quashed. Others had charges dropped after a Court of Appeal ruling.

Ed Arron, who chairs the industry association for quota holders, Pau2, said he was horrified by yesterday's court decision which came at a time when New Zealand was "haemorrhaging paua.

"This gives exactly the wrong message to poachers ... "

Last September, the case against six East Coast men charged with trying to sell poached paua and crayfish to an undercover fishery officer was dropped after the Court of Appeal ruled that a 2001 law change aimed at getting tough with poachers actually made it not illegal to receive money for poached seafood.

The Government has rushed legislation into Parliament to close the loophole.

- NZPA