A provincial court fined and suspended a B.C. hunting guide last week after he was found to have been taking clients into unauthorized territories.
Richard Todd Bunnage pleaded guilty to three offences under the Wildlife Act and was handed down a $22,000 penalty and 10-year guiding ban on June 18.
The Conservation Officer Service said in a post about the ruling that its officers investigated Bunnage from 2019 to 2021. They determined that Bunnage was taking hunters into regions around Fort Nelson that he was not licensed to guide in.
He then attempted to cover his tracks by falsely recording the area where clients had killed and harvested two moose and two black bears.
On June 18, Bunnage was fined $12,000 and ordered to pay a further $10,000 to the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation. He is also banned from working as a guide in B.C. for the next 10 years.
The Conservation Officer Service noted that this isn't the first time Bunnage has been found guilty of violating the Wildlife Act. In May 2022, he pleaded guilty to his involvement in an illegal guiding business called Tenaka River Guide Service. Hunters guided by the service illegally killed a moose and a black bear.
That time, Bunnage was fined $9,200.
