The B.C. Conservation Officer Service says a man has been fined $10,000 and banned from hunting for 15 years for illegally killing a grizzly bear near Elkford, B.C., in the Kootenay region of the province.

A decision from a provincial court judge in Fernie, B.C. this week also ordered Guofeng Li’s rifle be forfeited, the service said in a social media post.

It said officers launched an investigation in the spring of 2020 after receiving a tip from the public about a man hunting bears using bait near the community of Elkford, which is roughly 85 km east of Cranbrook.

The service said the investigation took a year, but in 2021 conservation officers apprehended Li shooting a decoy black bear at the site where bait had been placed.