A New Liskeard-area man has been fined $1,000 for abandoning a boat and motor that subsequently froze into the ice.
Derek Leveille of Belle Vallee was found guilty in a trial in absentia and fined $1,000 for an offence under the Public Lands Act.
Court heard that in late December 2015, officers with the OPP Temiskaming detachment responded to a call about an abandoned boat that had been found floating near Mission Narrows of Lake Temiskaming, approximately 20 kilometres south of New Liskeard.
The officers discovered that Leveille had borrowed the boat from a friend and abandoned it when it broke down. Leveille assured the OPP officers that he would remove the boat from the lake.
In early January 2016, conservation officers were notified by the OPP that the boat had not been removed and was now frozen into the lake. After an investigation, Leveille was charged. The original owner of the boat removed it from the lake.
Justice of the Peace Clayton McKechnie heard the case in the Ontario Court of Justice, Haileybury, on December 8.
