Company director who bought black market paua a 'flagrant' offender

Friday, 14 February 2020

The director of a seafood company who handed over wads of cash to buy hundreds of kilograms of black-market paua has been labelled a 'flagrant' offender.

Giancarlo 'Joe' D'Esposito, a director of Hawke's Bay Seafoods, would meet a man at the Napier premises of the company to pay cash for bags of minced paua between September 2014 and August 2015.

D'Esposito would meet the man at the Hawke's Bay Seafoods premises in Napier, and paid cash for black market minced paua, in zip lock plastic bags, which would then be weighed at the premises.

Unknown to D'Esposito the man was an undercover agent working for the Ministry of Primary Industries as part of 'Operation River'. The agent infiltrated the local fishing community in which the blackmarket activity was suspected.

D'Esposito and the company last year pleaded guilty to a charge of buying paua in contravention of the Fisheries Act. They were sentenced by Judge Lawrence Hinton in Napier District Court on Friday.

MPI fisheries compliance national manager Steve Ham said the ministry was 'absolutely satisfied' with the sentencing of Hawke's Bay Seafoods.

* Black market fishers who planned Fiji holiday given home detention instead**

D'Esposito bought 457kg of minced paua and paid $9180 in cash. The wholesale value of the paua was $24,040.

*** Iwi buys Hawke's Bay Seafoods business

* Seized properties worth $4.1million released to owner five years after fisheries raid**

Crown prosecutor Steve Manning told the judge that the Ministry of Primary Industries did not accept any suggestion of reduced culpability due to the involvement of an undercover officer in illegal activity.

Manning said it was 'axiomatic' that an agent would be involved in that manner, just as they would in an undercover drug operation.

He said D'Esposito had been involved in fishing industry for more than 40 years, had been director of a number of fishing companies, and had several previous fisheries convictions.

Manning noted a previous sentencing judge had referred to D'Esposito as a frequent offender and Manning said any claim that he was somehow naive was rejected.

He also pointed out that D'Esposito's offending took place before and after a major MPI raid of his operation.

'That, if anything, is clear evidence that this is someone who is flagrantly ignoring fishing legislation at his own peril,' Manning said.

The offending required a deterrent sentence to send a message to other commercial fishers, he said.

D'Esposito's lawyer Paul Wicks QC said D'Esposito fully acknowledged and accepted his guilt, but at issue was the part the undercover officer played.

The undercover officer played a role by initiating the offending by approaching D'Esposito with the blackmarket paua, Wicks said.

Judge Hinton said D'Esposito held an important role in an important industry in the Hawke's Bay community.

He outlined the nature of the 'serious offending' and said D'Esposito must be held accountable through a substantial deterrent sentencing

The Judge said the offending was clearly for financial gain over a reasonable period and he knew what he was doing was illegal.

He acknowledged that the sales of the paua were initiated and continued by undercover officer, but he did not accept that that made D'Esposito any less culpable, particularly given his knowledge of, and lengthy involvement in, the fishing industry.

D'Esposito's actions showed a 'flagrant disregard of regulations' and there were no mitigating factors, the judge said.

He sentenced D'Esposito to 10 months home detention and 200 hours of community work.

The company was fined $27,600, with the judge noting the company's 'apparently parlous position'.

The undercover agent first contacted D'Esposito by calling him on September 17, 2014. D'Esposito told him to meet him at the Hawke's Bay Seafoods premises that evening.

After the premises was raided by MPI as part of a separate operation in late September, 2014, D'Esposito told the man to 'stop things for a couple of months until things go back to normal', but the third transaction took place just weeks later, on October 14, 2014.

In total D'Esposito bought 457kg of minced paua and paid $9180 in cash. The wholesale value of the paua was $24,040.

On September 1, 2015, the agent entered the Hawke's Bay Seafoods fish and chip shop in Hastings and asked if he could buy a 1kg bag of frozen minced paua. The staff member went to a freezer in the back of the store and returned with a bag and sold it to him for $60. The bag had identifying features that showed it was one he had sold to D'Esposito earlier.

The following day Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) compliance officers raided fishing operations in Hastings, Napier and Mahia.

The operation uncovered 1.8 tonnes of paua and 600 crayfish, and officers seized one commercial fishing vessel, three recreational fishing vessels, one tractor, and 11 vehicles that were connected with black market catch and sales

Hawke's Bay Seafoods had numerous previous convictions.

The company was purchased in April by Kahungunu Asset Holding Company Ltd., which manages assets on behalf of Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated, and is now operating as Takitimu Seafoods.