A 35-year-old Renwick man has admitted stealing a line of mussel spat worth about $14,000 from his employer in what police believe is the first crime of its type in New Zealand.
Kelvin James Slape, a former mussel-seeding boat skipper for fishing company Sanford, admitted the theft when he appeared before Judge Tony Zohrab in the Blenheim District Court yesterday.
Police prosecutor, Sergeant Steve Frost, said Slape had agreed to help another Sanford employee with a plan to take mussel spat from the company to a private marine farm.
That man, Raymond George Naish, 66, has also been charged with theft and receiving stolen property. He has denied the charges.
The estimated value of the stolen spat when mature was up to $50,000, Mr Frost said.
Between April and December last year, Slape and his crew stripped a mussel line valued at up to $14,300, he said.
Mussel lines are usually stripped and mussels discarded if they are of no value.
However, this line was of good quality and would not have been discarded, Mr Frost said.
Naish had approached Slape, who had the specialised equipment and crew, to take the spat line to a private farm in Port Ligar, he said.
The pair had agreed Slape and his crew would each get $500 for the work.
Defence lawyer Matthew Marshall said Slape's reputation had been tarnished, especially within the small fishing industry in Havelock.
Slape told the police he was responsible for his crew and regretted what he had done.
There had been no actual loss, because Sanford had recovered the rope, Mr Marshall said.
Slape will reappear for sentencing on August 16.
Spat are juvenile mussels seeded on to mussel ropes and harvested as mature mussels after about 18 months.
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