An Arran, Sask., man has been convicted for a third time for hunting violations in the province.
Gerald Freese, 58, recently pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of wildlife, using another person’s licence, and failing to attach a seal to a big game.
The charges were laid after a routine inspection of a butcher shop in October 2018 when conservation officers said they found a discrepancy in an elk brought in for butchering.
They determined the elk had been shot on Sept. 2, with the licence purchased at 7:59 a.m. that same day, but the person who bought the licence did not shoot the elk.
Officers said another hunter shot the elk then asked someone else to buy the licence.
Freese was fined $3,300 for the violations and handed a three-year hunting suspension.
He was previously convicted in 2007 for unlawfully hunting elk, and in 2017 for unlawfully hunting a bull moose.
Charges against the person who bought the licence were dropped by the Crown after Freese agreed to plead guilty.