Three company directors responsible for tyre dumps at Kawerau and Waihi Beach have been convicted, fined and ordered to remove the remaining tyres.

Alan George Merrie, Angela Kay Merrie and Jonathon Lindsay Spencer were convicted in Tauranga District Court on two charges under the Resource Management Act of contravening abatement notices filed in 2015 by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council.

In a written decision, Judge David Kirkpatrick convicted Alan Merrie and Angela Merrie and fined them each $28,500. Jonathon spencer was fined $21,000. The fines are to be paid to the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, less 10 per cent for the Crown.

In addition the Judge ordered that all remaining tyres at Jason Hubbard's yard at Tamarangi St Kawerau be removed and disposed of by April 30.

The directors each remain jointly and severally liable for actual and reasonable costs incurred by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council in complying with the enforcement orders.

If they don't remove the tyres by the end of April the regional council can sell or dispose of the tyres and bill the Merries and Jonathon Spencer for costs and expenses.

They are also ordered to provide the regional council with a valid email address by March 16. They are also ordered to pay any invoices emailed, within 20 working days of the bill being sent.

Alan Merrie of Mount Maunganui, his daughter Angela Merrie of Grey Lynn and Jonathon Spencer, also of Grey Lynn, pleaded guilty to contravening a Bay of Plenty Regional council abatement notice at a hearing in Tauranga in September 2017.

The maximum penalty is $300,000 or two years jail. The regional council prosecution sought only 10 per cent of that, a conviction and a fine with a starting point of $30,000 for the Merries.

Prosecutor Adam Hopkinson says there's no environmental damage from the two stockpiles, but overtime they could create a leachate containing zinc polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, cadmium and lead.

The Kawerau stockpile site was leased from Kawerau District council on October 8, 2014, with 1200 tonnes of tyres being moved onto the site over six months.

The Waihi stockpile happened in 2015 after Ecoversion Logistics the company that the three were directors of, was paid $286, 235 by Hamilton city council to take away about 1000 tonnes from a failed tyre storage in Hamilton.

They couldn't be stored at Kawerau because Ecoversion logistics was in breach of its lease there, and the KDC wouldn't allow any more tyres to be brought onto the Kawerau site.

They hired land at 597 Waihi Beach Road from May 1 2015, for three months, and moved about 900 tonnes of tyres onto the site. The remaining Hamilton tyres were sent to Taupo for ‘farm use'.

Abatement notices were issued in June 2015 regarding both sites, but withdrawn when Alan Merrie asked for a time extension.

Abatement notices were again issued in August 2015 to the three defendants regarding the tyres at both Waihi Beach and Kawerau sites, and requiring them to be removed by November 1, 2015.

When the regional council prosecution started in on March 31, 2016, no tyres had been removed from Waihi and about eight tonnes from Kawerau.

Through counsel, the defendants' sought a discharge without conviction with orders to pay costs.

The prosecution argued the defendants had to take personal responsibility for the situation they created.

Adam Hopkinson says the Merries took no steps at all to comply with the abatement notice. Jonathon Spencer was the director who took that responsibility and as a result the prosecution sought a lower starting point for him of $21,000.

Each defendant generally blamed the others for the offending which the judge took to indicate a lack of remorse. Jonathon Spencer made attempts to comply with the abatement notices, removing the tyres from the Waihi site and most of the tyres from Kawerau.

Their discount was only slight because guilty pleas were not entered until preparations for the trial were well under way, says the Judge.

While they claimed to be seeking a better environmental outcome the trio appeared to have embarked on the venture with little if any strategy for what to do it their original plans didn't result in a suitable disposal method being found for the tyres.

Ecoversion Logistics was incorporated September 26 2014 under the name Kawerau Tyre Storage which was involved in the transport and storage of tyres across the north island in readiness for a tyre recycling venture to be established by Ecoversion Ltd.

Angela Merrie is a former director of Ecoversion Logistics, appointed October 20, 2014, resigned October 21 2015.

Alan Merrie is a former Ecoversion Logistics director, appointed October 20, 2014, until the company was removed from the companies register in April 2017.

Alan is the sole director of Process Holdings Ltd which owned the other half of Ecoversion Logistics. Alan is an owner of Process Holdings though other companies.

The Merries and other persons were since August 2014 promoting a tyre recycling venture, first through the company Sustainable Equities Ltd, (struck off December 11, 2015 with Angela Merrie as sole director) then through Ecoversion. Ecoversion leased Kawerau District Council land at spencer Avenue on October 8 2014.

Ecoversion Logistics Ltd formerly traded as Kawerau Tyre Storage Ltd. Its sole director is listed on the NZ Companies office as Jonathon Lindsay Spencer, of Grey Lynn.