{"id":493235,"date":"2026-06-24T12:47:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T12:47:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/493235\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T12:47:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T12:47:15","slug":"whangarei-fisherman-george-esela-fined-2600-and-loses-boat-after-illegal-catch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/493235\/","title":{"rendered":"Whang\u0101rei fisherman George Esela fined $2600 and loses boat after illegal catch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Between that period, he harvested 90.1kg of garfish with an estimated value of almost $800.<\/p>\n

MPI<\/a> lawyer Paddy Wood told the court they were seeking forfeiture of Esela\u2019s vessel, UnPro Fishing, along with a fine in the vicinity of $2000.<\/p>\n

Esela\u2019s lawyer, Matthew Creamer, said his client was a hardworking man who had made a mistake. <\/p>\n

Creamer said Esela\u2019s guilty pleas came as early as they could following resolutions with MPI<\/a>, but it was regrettable that Esela would lose his vessel.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe provides for his family and has been in this country working for a long time now, sir. The likelihood of him being back in court is very slim,\u201d Creamer submitted.<\/p>\n

Judge Gus Andree Wiltens acknowledged the sad situation Esela found himself in, being a father who had to provide for seven children.<\/p>\n

The judge said Esela had a lack of criminal history and awarded him a 40% discount on his fine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s happening today is that I\u2019m going to formally enter a conviction which means that your boat, the UnPro fishing vessel, and the dragnet are forfeited, subject to later negotiation between you and the department. And I\u2019m going to fine you a total of $2600.\u201d<\/p>\n

UnPro Fishing Ltd also had its fishing permit, which was valid until 2028, suspended in November 2025.<\/p>\n

Shannon Pitman is a Whang\u0101rei-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. She is of Ng\u0101puhi\/ Ng\u0101ti P\u016bkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. She joined NZME in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Between that period, he harvested 90.1kg of garfish with an estimated value of almost $800. MPI lawyer Paddy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":493236,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[247077,74,95,5532,1068,247076,19631,19630,12856,42,16484,11517,43,40,38,41,39,1869],"class_list":["post-493235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-247077","tag-after","tag-and","tag-boat","tag-catch","tag-esela","tag-fined","tag-fisherman","tag-george","tag-headlines","tag-illegal","tag-loses","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-whangrei"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}