Leaving 1400 sheep to starve has cost a PGG Wrightson livestock manager and auctioneer more than $20,000.

46-year-old Neville William Clark pleaded guilty to leaving the sheep on a 412ha forest block south of Gisborne.

On Wednesday he was fined $11,000 and ordered to pay $9,700 in costs  in Gisborne District Court.

Mr. Clark took out the grazing lease on a block south of Gisborne in 2008, stocking it with about 1500 sheep.

A few months later, an investigation found just over 700 of the 1500 sheep were alive.

MAF’s Enforcement Director Jockey Jensen said Clark had deliberately put large numbers of vulnerable sheep into an unsuitable area.

The judge, however, said Mr. Clark was a first-time offender with no suggestion he was  willfully cruel but instead had fallen short of good farming standards.