A Tauranga man who attempted to smuggle exotic overseas plants into New Zealand and ignored warnings from a government department has been fined more than $5000.
Scott David Peters, 33, was sentenced and fined $5250 at the Auckland District Court on Wednesday on a single charge under the Biosecurity Act, laid after a Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) investigation.
The court heard Peters attempted to import a package of plant bulbs from India in September 2019. That package was caught and seized by customs officers at the International Mail Centre, before reaching Peters' Tauranga property.
MPI contacted the man, providing "educational advice" in an attempt to deter him from future offending.