A CHARTERS TOWERS grazier who pleaded guilty to stealing 15 head of cattle over three years from 2009 was convicted and ordered to pay almost $20,000 in fines and costs last Thursday.
Noel Raymond Provost, 54, appeared in front of the Charters Towers Magistrates Court on October 10 and pleaded guilty to all seven charges against him, including stealing stock, defacing brands and earmarks, entering false information on a waybill, illegal branding, and suspicion of stealing stock.
Police Prosecutor Colleen Wainright told the court Provost was caretaking Centauri Station in 2010 when he assisted Tony McMahon, Leyshon View, to muster one of Mr McMahon’s paddocks adjacent to Centauri.
The court heard in November that same year, Provost registered a brand – crossVM – similar to Mr McMahon’s family brand, crossVN, which was registered in 1945.
The McMahon family discovered Provost had registered this similar brand in October last year and contacted the Charters Towers Stock and Rural Investigations Squad (SARIS) with suspicions Provost had been stealing cattle from them.
In turn, SARIS contacted the Dalrymple Saleyards and requested they alert police if any cattle with Provost’s brand were brought to the saleyards.
On February 27, 2013, SARIS received a call from Dalrymple Saleyards Manager Ralph Peno – Provost had brought six head of cattle into the yards, all of which were seized as police exhibits later that day.
Search warrants were sought for Provost’s residence at Bluff Road as well as Centauri.
During the search warrant at Centauri, one cleanskin beast was identified with the same brand as the other 15 head and seized on the suspicion it was also stolen.
A branding iron M was also found, which Provost later claimed ownership of, as well as waybills indicating an additional nine head of cattle with the crossVM brand had been sold to a Prairie grazier in December 2012 for $300 a head.
Ms Wainwright told the court SARIS travelled to Prairie and located all nine head of cattle, which were transported to the Dalrymple Saleyards, where the other seven beasts were being kept.
DNA sampling of all 16 head was restricted due to costs; however, DNA samples taken from two of the 16 head of cattle confirmed they were the progeny of one of Mr McMahon’s bulls.
Two days prior to his scheduled trial, Provost pleaded guilty to all charges.
Ms Wainwright told the court of the 15 head Provost admitted to stealing, he branded over the N with his M brand in four instances, while in the remaining 11 cases, he altered the N by adding a stroke.
The court heard Provost had stated he threw out his branding irons and earmarking pliers five months before the search warrants took place because they were “buggered” and as a result he had to use a wire brand to “fix” the M.
Prior to his admission of guilt, the court heard Provost claimed his three-piece brand was fixed and therefore each symbol was proportionally spaced whereas Mr McMahon used individual irons.
Measurements of the distance between each of the three symbols and Provost’s admission later contradicted his previous claims.
Earmarks on the 15 head stolen were also altered, with a tag of skin cut away to match Provost’s registered earmark.
Defence barrister Justin Greggery instructed by Malcomson Lawyers suggested Mr McMahon would not only be returned to his former position with the return of his cattle, but arguably was also better off due to Provost’s care of the animals.
Mr Greggery hoped Magistrate Peter Smid would take this and Provost’s position as a disability pensioner into consideration when sentencing.
Magistrate Smid ordered a conviction be recorded against Provost and released the 16 head of cattle back into Mr McMahon’s care. In addition, he ordered Provost to pay $15,200 in fines - $1000 per stolen beast and $200 for the cleanskin suspected of being stolen.
Provost also had to pay $720 to Mr McMahon to cover the costs of holding the 16 head of cattle at the Dalrymple Saleyards during the investigation and $3,154.85 to Queensland Police as restitution for DNA sampling and transport of the stolen cattle.
Magistrate Smid said Provost was now in a position worse off “than you perhaps thought you stood to gain through your dishonesty” and hoped the penalty would act as a deterrent to others.
Charters Towers SARIS Senior Constable David Atwell was the arresting officer in the case. He also hoped Provost’s sentence would act as a deterrent.
“Cattle producers in northern regions and elsewhere in Australia currently in the midst of drought and a serious economic climate do not need the added pressures of cattle theft to deal with,” Senior Constable David Atwell said.
“Hopefully the penalty handed down in the court today will act as a deterrent to those persons who wish to participate in illegal activities,” he said.
