Serial poacher pays his dues on weekends

During the week, he is a normal citizen continuing his daily family life. On weekends, he is a convicted criminal spending his time behind the bars of a prison cell.

Convicted on three counts of crayfish poaching, Werner Crause walked through the gates of Westville prison on Friday, but will leave again on Sunday afternoon. For the past four weeks, Crause has spent his weekends at the prison, serving periodic imprisonment.

Scottburgh magistrate Chris Schoeman decided to dole out an unusual punishment to the serial poacher. Schoeman said Crause had appeared before the courts on three occasions for poaching.

"He was first fined R4 500, and the second time he was fined R12 500. This was his third appearance for the same offence and I knew another fine was not going to make him listen," said the magistrate.

But Crause differs in opinion.

"I think the justice system is terrible and is really buggered up," said Crause, who doesn't believe that spending weekends in a prison cell is productive punishment.

"Why does my name have to be in the paper? I have already had my punishment, so why do you have to do this?" he asked.

Because his young wife, Lauren, is pregnant, with the baby due in January, Crause is worried about her.

"Do you have any idea what this is doing to my wife and family?" he asked.

While out on bail for this case, he was again arrested by KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife for the same crime. He is due to appear at KwaDukuza Magistrate's Court on December 5.

Provincial Commissioner Patrick Gillingham said there was only one person in the province serving this kind of sentence, although there were 38 serving nationally.

It was up to the court to decide whether this form of punishment would be the most suitable option or not, and each offender's case was evaluated on its own merits. It cost about R96,20 a day to house an offender, he said. House arrest was part of a community-based sentence and available for those sentenced to correctional supervision.

In KwaZulu-Natal, 7 735 offenders were under house arrest - compared with 45 328 nationally, Gillingham said.

Crause was caught and arrested by KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife Inspectors Paul Buchel and Steve Hoesack at Umkomaas in March.

"We knew him, had seen him around the beaches, but it is very difficult to actually catch someone with crayfish in his hand," said Hoesack. He said they had watched Crause and his partner go out in the boat and waited five hours for their return. When the pair saw the inspectors they threw the crayfish overboard. The inspectors retrieved 50 undersized crayfish, but believe more than 100 had been tossed overboard.

Schoeman believed that, in this case, a fine would not have had any effect, so he sentenced Crause to the highest sentence he could - 2 000 hours' imprisonment at Westville prison for the next 40 weeks.

Correctional Services official Philemon Ntuli said Crause had to enter the gates of Westville prison by 4pm every Friday. He wore a regulation prison uniform and was locked up in a cell, away from full-time offenders. Sunday afternoons saw him freed into society until the following Friday.

Hoesack said this was an imaginative sentence. Police had a success rate of just 2 percent in catching and convicting poachers and any deterrent was welcomed.

Schoeman said periodic imprisonment of this nature had been in existence since 1959, yet not many magistrates took advantage of it. It was usually used in crimes such as drunken driving or failure to pay maintenance.

The Criminal Procedure Act states that the sentence can be a minimum of 100 hours and a maximum of 2 000 hours. It was an effective means of giving the offender a taste of prison life, while still enabling him or her to maintain a family life and employment.

"It can also be used for crimes committed at weekends, thereby imprisoning the offender when he is most tempted to commit the crime," Schoeman added.