The Queensland leader of a group opposing the eradication of fire ants in Australia has been convicted of obstructing government officers, after a magistrate threw out his argument that the commonwealth-funded program is illegal.

Trevor Hold was fined $1,500 but a conviction was not recorded. Hold has described himself as an “ultrapreneur”, a mental health counsellor, an organic cattle farmer and the chief executive officer of the anti-program group the Australian Advocacy Group – and as self-employed.

He was convicted last month of two counts of obstruction for attempting to prevent fire ant treatment at his property, in what is believed to be a Queensland first.

Video of Trevor Hold arrest from the ‘ultrapreneur’s’ Facebook page.

His organisation and others held a series of well attended meetings last year across south-east Queensland to advise residents on what the group called their legal rights to refuse or prevent access to their properties to the program.

Under Queensland’s Biosecurity Act,…