A Canterbury company has been sentenced for a raft of charges related to fraudulently blending and mislabelling wine.
Photo: 123RF
Southern Boundary Wines, its directors Scott Charles Berry and Andrew Ronald Moore and winemaker Rebecca Junell Cope were sentenced at the High Court in Christchurch today.
The Ministry for Primary Industries found the company made false statements about the vintage of some of its wine, where it was produced and also falsified records to cover it up.
The company was fined $1.7 million, while Scott Berry and Andrew Moore were sentenced to home detention and ordered to pay reparation.
Rebecca Cope was sentenced to community work.
MPI director of compliance Gary Orr said there had not been a case like this before.
"On this scale, with the deliberate nature of it, with the falsification of source of wine, I don't think we've seen a similar case. thankfully, this kind of case is very isolated."
