Company admits pickled turnip border breach

An anonymous tip-off alerted the authorities to the bag of turnips. Photo / George Heard

The case is all about pickled turnips, but Christchurch District Court Judge Michael Crosbie says it must not be taken lightly.

Instead, he has set the case on track for a full day of sentencing in April, even after the company involved, Cloud, Ocean, Water Limited, admitted a breach of the Biosecurity Act.

The summary of facts is still in dispute. The dispute is about whether pressure was applied within the company to smuggle the pickled turnips.

A 20kg bag of the turnips was placed within a shipping container bringing machinery to New Zealand from China. The company exports bottled New Zealand water from a plant in Belfast, near Christchurch.

An anonymous tip-off, which defence counsel Pip Hall QC says must have come from someone close to the company itself, alerted the authorities.

They swooped after the tipster identified which shipping container the contraband was in, and the pickles did not make it across the border.

That has led to the company being prosecuted by the Ministry of Primary Industries under the Biosecurity Act, an offence that carries a maximum fine of $200,000.

The sentencing was scheduled for Friday, but issues arose with the dispute about the summary, and also about documents being filed late.

The company wants to argue for a discharge without conviction. Hall said that would mean the judge might either convict and fine them, or discharge them and order a donation to charity and costs.

Judge Crosbie said he believed he needed to put the case off for a full day's hearing in April. The case has been making its way through the court system for months, and the judge said he hoped one more hearing will finalise it.

He said: "I don't make light of the subject matter because at the end of the day what we are talking about is border-related, and that is important for the company that imports and exports."