Judgments|A serial entrepreneur from Porvoo built a road in a nature reserve. He was fined.
A year also awarded as an entrepreneur from Porvoo Roni Collin45, was sentenced to fines, because he had built a path in a nature reserve, on the way of which trees were felled and vegetation destroyed.
The district court of Itä-Uusimaa sentenced Collin to a 30-day fine for the nature conservation crime, which accrued 480 euros to be paid from his income. The judgment is not yet final.
Collin is known among the locals as a serial entrepreneur who has worked in the real estate, restaurant, tourism and automotive industries as well.
Collin acquired an area in Piirlahti in Porvoo in 2017, for which he had planned a cottage village intended for tourism.
The project is According to Uusimaa newspaper has gathered criticism among the locals, as they have feared that the natural values of the area will be endangered.
After the shops, in 2018 the Ely center of Uusimaa defined the linden forest in the area as a protected area.
Since then, Collin wanted to clear a path leading to the beach. The entrepreneur demanded from the ely center either the reduction of the protected area or, alternatively, the right to clear a three-meter-wide path through the area.
The Ely Center considered that the necessary path to the area can be cleared without jeopardizing the characteristics of the habitat.
Result however, according to the verdict, differed considerably from the plans.
According to the environmental protection inspector, a path was built in the area using an excavator, which “is not a path, but a 5-6 meter wide, gravel-covered road that can be driven by a car”.
In its verdict, the district court took into account that the fairway has since been narrowed and the rubble has been removed. However, according to the court, these actions have not brought back the trees and undergrowth that were destroyed under the road.
According to the law, the damages caused are significant and partly final. In addition, the court considered that Collin was aware that the area was protected when he started the road construction.
Collin denied in court that he was guilty of a nature conservation crime, because he considered that he had acted in accordance with the instructions he had received from the ely center. According to the entrepreneur, the path was graveled due to the steepness of the terrain and the clay soil.
In addition, he pleaded in court that “path” is not precisely defined in Finland, and according to him, it is not a road in the sense of the law.
The district court considered that it is not necessary to define the concept of path unambiguously.
“It is clear, however, that such a wide graveled passageway built on the property cannot be a path in any normal language, and the defendant could not have believed such a thing,” the court stated.
Collin sticks to the view he shared in court also when commenting on the matter to HS.
“I definitely still agree that I have acted in full accordance with the permit. I applied for a permit for the path, got it and implemented it. Then we argued about which is the path and which is the road,” he states.
Collin points out that the ely center could have been more specific in its instructions when granting permission to build the trail. However, he does not plan to appeal the district court’s verdict.
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