Former mayor says he didn't burn tyres in polluting fire, was recovering from a stroke

Wednesday, 25 May 2022

Former Whangārei mayor and Northland Regional Councillor Stan Semenoff is accused of polluting the air by burning tyres and plastic. (File photo)

Whangārei's former mayor Stan Semenoff claims it was his employees, not himself, who were responsible for a large fire of plastics and tyres on his business' premise.

Stanley Gillis Alexander Semenoff is facing two charges of polluting the air, in breach of the Resource Management Act, for the fire in June 2020.

The fire occurred at Stan Semenoff Group's headquarters in Raumanga, Whangārei.

If convicted, he faces up to two years in jail or a $300,000 fine.

The charges are laid by the Northland Regional Council – the same council he also served on, representing ratepayers in Whangārei.

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Stan Semenoff Group includes a well-known transport company. (File photo)

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Semenoff was Whangārei mayor from 1989 to 1998, and again from 2007 to 2010, with this picture taken in 2010. In between those times, he served on Northland Regional Council.

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He is accused of discharging contaminates into the air by burning tyres, plastic and treated logs, and allowing the fire to continue burning the following day, in breach of the Resource Management Act.

The matter is being considered in a two-day Environment Court hearing in Whangārei in front of Judge Prudence Steven QC.

The black-smoke fire was on a 3ha industrial premise in South End Ave in Whangārei’s Raumanga, the base of Stan Semenoff Group – a company with about 100 employees across logging, bulk transport and sand mining businesses.

The charges are against Semenoff personally as managing director, as he is accused of undertaking the acts himself or knowingly permitted them to occur.

In court on Wednesday, his lawyer Matthew Atkinson said Semenoff did not light the fire nor know that it would be lit.

Semenoff suffered a stroke about two months before the fire, which meant he had to take a step back from his business' operations, Atkinson outlined.

When he learnt of the fire, which had been doused with thousands of litres of water by Fire and Emergency NZ, Semenoff instructed it to be put out by pouring soil on the blaze to smother it, he said.

Witnesses to be called in the hearing including FENZ officers who attended the blaze, Semenoff’s GP and employees.

The hearing is expected to conclude on Thursday.

Semenoff was Whangārei mayor from 1989 to 1998, and again from 2007 to 2010. In between this, he was an elected Northland Regional Councillor and Northland District Health Board member.

This is not the first time the Northland Regional Council has brought a prosecution against one of its elected leaders.

In September 2020, former chairman Bill Shepherd avoided a fine for illegally spilling cow effluent near a waterway on his dairy farm.

But his sharemilker manager Robert Philip and their respective farm companies had to pay tens of thousands of dollars in fines for what the judge called systematic problems on the farm.