FARMER Geoff Cheshire has been awarded costs by a magistrate following a failed prosecution by the Department of Primary Industries over an alleged failure to control a blackberry problem.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The department proceeded with the prosecution against Mr Cheshire’s company, Bontharambo Nominees Pty Ltd, in Wangaratta Court last week, but withdrew the case after calling two witnesses.
Magistrate Tom Barrett awarded Mr Cheshire $5000 costs after an application by his Melbourne barrister Charles Morgan.
Mr Cheshire has been dumbfounded by the prosecution and accused the department of “bullying tactics”.
His Wangaratta solicitor, Kerry Clancy, said he had warned the department before it proceeded that Mr Cheshire had a strong case and would probably win.
“I rang the department and questioned why they were prosecuting it,” Mr Clancy said yesterday.
He said the response was “they were under pressure to prosecute it”.
Mr Cheshire faced two charges by summons as a director of the company owning the former Myrtleford abattoir site covering 8ha with failing to comply with an order to spray and failing to advise the department of spraying.
Mr Clancy said the department had offered to withdraw one charge provided Mr Cheshire pleaded guilty to the other and he would receive a $350 fine without conviction.
Mr Cheshire said the offer was tempting but there was a principle involved and they “picked the wrong person”.
“This has cost me about $8000 even though I got $5000 back,” he said.
The blackberries were sprayed with a chemical, which according to the manufacturers, could take six to 12 months for signs to become evident.
Mr Clancy said one of the department’s own officers admitted that was the case and it was “a strange prosecution”.
But Mr Cheshire said the department insisted the blackberries had not been sprayed.
Department prosecutor Geoff Morsby said there were technical issues relating to the notices served and a statutory issue with one of the dates stipulated.
The department’s North East catchment co-ordinator at Wodonga, Terry Barnard, said part of the reason for the withdrawal of charges was it was unable to substantiate beyond reasonable doubt the work was done in the stipulated period of the land management notice.
It was expected symptoms of treatment would have been seen in the time frame set and they were not.
“If we had seen symptoms on plants in the area where work was required, then we would have been likely to be satisfied,” he said.
