Sydney gardener fined almost $200,000 for removing 287 trees to improve harbourside mansion’s water views

Local council described incident as ‘worst act of environmental vandalism in Lane Cove history’

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It began with a gardener being hired to trim grass at a harbourside mansion in Sydney – and escalated to payments being left in a shoe for the unlawful felling of hundreds of native trees in protected bushland.

Now a court has fined Yi Wang $187,500 for his role in organising and carrying out the destruction of 287 trees from a council-owned foreshore bushland at Woodford Bay in Longueville in late 2023.