Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries v Schofield - [1990] 1 NZLR 210

Criminal law — Sentence — Discharge without conviction — Minimum penalty — Costs — Defendant pleaded guilty to six charges of failing to make monthly quota management reports — Fisheries Act provides that on conviction all individual transferable quota shall be forfeit to the Crown, and that every holder of a licence shall be the subject of an inquiry — Whether the statutory forfeiture provision and the requirement for an inquiry were minimum penalties which prevented the Court from discharging the defendant without conviction — Whether the costs order of $2600, made by the District Court Judge when he discharged the defendant without conviction, was excessive — Fisheries Act 1983, ss 107C(1) and 107D(3) — Criminal Justice Act 1985, s 19.

Criminal law — Sentence — Forfeiture of property of fishing quota on conviction — "Special reasons relating to the offence" — Two commercial fishermen were convicted of offences under the Fisheries Act (ie, in one case, taking paua from a prohibited area and, in the other, possessing undersized lobster) — A consequence of conviction was that the offender's property and all individual transferable quota "shall be forfeit to the Crown, unless the Court for special reasons relating to the offence thinks fit to order otherwise" — Whether confusion over ownership of fishing quota amounted to a special reason relating to the offence of taking paua — Whether findings of fact as to rough seas, dangerous conditions and the measuring of the rock lobsters being undertaken by a person other than the defendant constituted special reasons relating to the offence of possessing undersized lobster — Observations as to the proper procedure to adopt on an application for a non-forfeiture order, and obligations on prosecutor in relation thereto — Fisheries Act 1983, ss 107B and 107C.