A former Australian Macadamia Society chairman has been convicted and fined for illegal water use.

Andrew James Starkey, former chairman of the Australian Macadamia Society, has been fined $5,000 and ordered to pay $3,000 in legal fees after pleading guilty to taking water without an access licence and using a water supply work without work approval.

His company, Macs Operations Pty Ltd, has been convicted and fined $10,000 and ordered to pay $7,000 in legal costs for four counts of the same charges.

Additionally, landowner Anthony Michael Powell, has pleaded guilty to taking water without an access licence, convicted and fined $1,000 and ordered to pay $2,000 in legal costs.

The charges came after a covert and overt investigation by the Natural Resources Access Regulator (NRAR).

The offences related to water being pumped from a creek on the property without the necessary licences and approvals between June 1, 2016 and July 9, 2018.

The prosecution has argued that “general deterrence looms large because of difficulty detecting these matters”.

Mr Powell’s lawyer Sophie Anderson said that the property came with an existing licence and infrastructure for water pumping when her client purchased the property.

She said the breaches in the Water Management Act were merely a “mistaken understanding of obligations”.

“It is complex. It is not clear legislation,” she said.

“There was always an alternative water source (in the dams) and if Mr Powell as the land owner had understood the need for a specific licence… he would have attended to that or the alternative water source could have been utilised.”

Magistrate Karen Stafford said that a letter sent from the regulator to the defendants in mid-2017 included “quite clear terminology” saying approval was needed to pump water from the creek.

“When you have another look at the letter that was sent, it talks about alleged illegal extraction, unauthorised extraction, threats to fair and equitable sharing and serious penalties for non-compliance,” she said.

“The unreasonableness of their belief that they could just keep going … was to my mind significant.

“These are matters where there is a real environmental concern, particularly where water, in this country, is such an important resource.”