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DIDSBURY — Embattled independent MLA Derek Fildebrandt pleaded guilty to illegal hunting on a central Alberta property and was ordered to pay a $3,000 fine on Friday.

Fildebrandt admitted shooting a deer last Nov. 4, on what he thought was Crown land and pleaded guilty to an offence under the Wildlife Act of Alberta of being in unlawful possession of a deer.

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Commissioner Danny Elliott accepted a joint submission from environmental prosecutor Craig Kallal and defence counsel Dale Fedorchuk for a total fine of $3,000.

As part of the agreement, $2,000 will go to the Fish and Wildlife DNA research fund.

In reading from a statement of agreed facts, Kallal said wildlife officers were called to a rural property near Sundre by the landowner after she discovered a truck parked at a gate in her field.

The driver informed her that his buddy had just shot a deer in the field and they had permission to hunt on the land, to which the woman disagreed, indicating she and her husband were the landowners.