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Two West Grey men are receiving a combined $8,500 in fines for illegal deer hunting.
The Ministry of Natural Resources says in a release, the first man from Durham pleaded guilty to unlawfully claiming to have killed a deer which was killed by another hunter and providing a false statement to a conservation officer, he was fined $2,500.
The second Durham man pleaded guilty to hunting deer without a licence, hunting deer with a center-fire rifle in an archery and muzzleloading guns only season and gun hunting without the proper firearms licensing accreditation, he was fined $6,000.
This comes after the court heard that a conservation officer contacted the two men in December after they left a rural property.
An investigation revealed the two men had enacted a premeditated plan to falsely represent their hunting activity.
The first man was found in possession of a muzzleloading firearm and claimed he had just shot an antlerless deer. The second man denied hunting or possessing any firearms, and produced an antlered only deer tag.
When investigating the site where the deer was killed, the conservation officer found a loaded centre-fire rifle in a hunting blind nearby. They determined the second man, who was not licensed to hunt antlerless deer, was the one who killed the animal.
After killing the deer, the ministry say the second man contacted the first to help cover up the illegal hunt by claiming to have killed it, despite not having been participating in the hunt at that time.
Both men are suspended from hunting antlerless deer for two years.