A Sydney man has been found guilty of spraying weed killer on two golfers in Merriwa over two years ago.
John McFadden from Pyrmont pled not guilty to using pesticide in a manner that injures another person following an incident on October 30, 2022.
But yesterday in Muswellbrook Local Court Magistrate Kevin Hockey convicted McFadden of the offence.
He was fined $8000 and ordered to pay almost $50,0000 in costs to the EPA.
Two other similar charges were dismissed.
The incident occurred at the height of a vocal community fight over an application by the now 48-year-old to establish a helicopter landing pad on his King George The Fifth Avenue property.
The land in question is now subject to a development application before Upper Hunter Shire Council to subdivide it into 16 individual housing blocks.
Mr McFadden is a member of the North Sydney Local Planning Panel and in 2021 stood to be a councillor in the City of Sydney Council election.
