Vincenzo Lemma, 54, pleaded guilty to extracting water in February and June 2019, which sent his water account into the negative by 45.1 megalitres.
Shepparton Magistrates Court heard Mr Lemma had both channel and extraction irrigation entitlements, but he had failed to lodge an order for the water and extracted more than he had remaining in his allocation bank account.
Mr Lemma’s lawyer Ashley Richardson said there was no "intention to deprive" Goulburn-Murray Water and his client was acting on the same basis he had for five or six years.
“For years he would use water, they would record the take and from time to time he would have conversations with the water bailiff, who would help him manage the account,” he said.
“On some occasions he would go beyond the limit and G-MW would not take any action.”
Mr Lemma did not have a pin number to order water through the pumps but regularly did so for his channel irrigation.
G-MW maintained it was his responsibility to get a pin number and comply with the accounting process.
Mr Lemma was given seven days by G-MW to rectify the negative balance by trading water into the account, which he eventually did after deadline at significant cost, paying just over $500 a megalitre.
Water was expensive coming out of a long drought, and the court heard Mr Lemma’s finances were strained and so he waited, hoping the water price would fall.
Magistrate Peter Mithen said he took a different view of the offending, given Mr Lemma had two prior convictions, in 2003 and 2009.
“I would have had more sympathy if you had come here with clean hands, but you have not,” he said.
Mr Lemma, who milks 400 cows and has four employees on his farm, was convicted and fined $7000 and given three months to pay.
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