A 34-year-old poacher from the Carcross Corner was sentenced Friday afternoon to a six-month sentence to be served in the community and ordered to pay $20,000.

Jonathan Ensor pleaded guilty to 18 infractions of the laws to protect wildlife, including poaching a bison, deer, elk, mountain sheep and caribou, mostly in the fall of 2015.

His actions were intentional, and he made many attempts to conceal his illegal hunting, territorial court Judge Mike Cozens noted during the sentencing hearing.

The judge also emphasized how it is the duty of all Yukoners to report suspicious or illegal activity. The Yukon is large and remote, he said, and it’s not possible for the limited number of conservation officers to be everywhere.

Ensor has also been banned from hunting or even accompanying others hunting in the territory for 20 years.

The $20,000 is to be paid in two years and directed to the Yukon’s Turn in Poachers and Polluters tip line.

Cozens said for the first three months of Ensor’s sentence, he is to be confined to his home except for work.

In the final three months, he must be at his home between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., except for work.

In addition to poaching the big game, Ensor also pleaded guilty to poaching grouse and allowing grouse and bison meat to spoil.

The judge said a particularly aggravating circumstance was the fact Ensor did all the killing when he was prohibited under the Criminal Code of possessing a firearm.

Outside the courthouse after sentencing, Ensor said his apology to the court earlier this month during pre-sentencing submissions was honest and sincere, and he was remorseful for the situation he put his family, friends and employer in.

“I respect the judge’s decision,” he said Friday afternoon.

During sentencing submissions, Ensor had offerered to pay a fine of $45,000 if he could avoid the six-month jail sentence sought by territorial Crown prosecutor Megan Seiling. Seiling was also seeking a fine of $15,000.

Ensor told the court his contracting employer is heavily dependent on him, and a jail sentence would have a substantial impact on his employer.

Ryan Hennings, the territory’s manager of conservation officer services, said in an interview after the sentencing it’s probably the worst case of poaching he has seen in his 20-plus years as a conservation officer.

Cozens emphasized how one person can have such a huge negative impact on the Yukon’s wildlife, Hennings pointed out.

He also noted how Cozens said it’s the responsibility of all Yukoners to report illegal activity.

It was a tip from the public that led to the investigation that included a warrant to search Ensor’s home at the Carcross Corner on Oct. 1, 2015.

“As a part of the search, conservation officers located and seized firearms, ammunition, and electronic equipment as well as carcasses, meat, and body parts of various big- and small-game animals, “ says the five-page agreed statement of facts submitted to the court.

The statement details the illegal hunting activity, which included the illegal bison kill with Vanessa Pasula, the 45-year-old co-accused from Haines Junction.

Pasula pleaded guilty last August to four infractions under the Wildlife Act and was subsequently ordered to pay $5,000 into the TIPP program.

She was also prohibited from hunting for a period of three years, and ordered to take the hunter education and ethics course before obtaining her next hunting licence.

The agreed statement of facts details how Ensor and Pasula shot the bison in a closed area off the Cultus Bay Road near Silver City, and then initially lied to conservation officers about the location when questioned.

“Mr. Ensor hung the bison in his shop without first washing it,” reads the agreed statement of facts. “When he began to butcher the bison several days later, he found the meat had already begun to mould.

“Four days prior to hunting the bison, Mr. Ensor had hunted an elk which was hanging in shop when he returned with the bison. Having to first complete butchering the elk delayed Mr. Ensor from beginning to butcher the bison.

“Over the next few weeks, Mr. Ensor progressively butchered and packaged parts of the bison, but made no significant progress and the remaining meat began to waste,” reads the agreed statement of facts.

The statement notes of the meat that remained on the bison carcass when it was seized and taken to the butcher to salvage what was left, 66 pounds had wasted.

Ensor poached the elk at the Stoney Creek gravel pit west of Whitehorse.

The deer was poached in the dark along the Annie Lake Road, inside the 800-metre no-hunting corridor.

Ensor also used armour-piercing ammunition to kill the deer.

Armour-piercing ammunition is illegal to hunt with because the bullet, unlike soft point ammunition, does not expand on impact and cause greater damage that increases the severity of the wound and hastens the animal’s death.

During the pre-sentencing hearing, the court heard when Ensor illegally shot a caribou and sheep in B.C. in the fall of 2014 near the B.C.-Yukon border and illegally transported them back to the Yukon, it wasn’t because he didn’t know where the border is.

It was because he did not care where the border is, the court heard.