A Christchurch property developer has been fined after an incident involving a protected marsupial in Western Australia.
The Perth Magistrates Court on March 20 accepted evidence 37-year-old Bevan Hames placed a quokka in the water and that it safely swam to shore unharmed. It had initially been claimed Hames threw the quokka off a jetty at Rottnest Island into the water.
The ABC reports Hames was given a spent conviction - which can in future be legally ignored - after pleading guilty to animal cruelty in the Perth's Magistrate Court last month.
He was also fined $A2000.
Hames has a degree in zoology from Canterbury University.
