Student brought in high risk food
A Chinese student will have to pay penalties totalling $1130 for failing to declare 57 food items she tried to bring into New Zealand through Christchurch International Airport.Christchurch District Court Judge Christopher Somerville told 20-year-old Jingzhu Ma that she was a guest in New Zealand and she had to respect her hosts.
New Zealand was an island economy that depended on agriculture to pay its debts, he said, after she admitted bringing in food that included high risk items of poultry and pork.
She admitted breaching the Biosecurity Act when she repeatedly failed to admit having the food in her declaration and when questioned on arrival on August 11.
She told the authorities that she had been dealing with the recent death of her grandfather, and 24 hours of travel from mainland China. This had led to her errors of judgment, she said.
Defence counsel Norm Farquhar said her conviction was likely to have some effect on her ability to study in New Zealand. She had been warned that another offence would lead to her student visa being revoked.
Ma is studying management science at Canterbury University.
Judge Somerville told her: “If a conviction for this means you can’t come back to New Zealand, I’m sorry, but you deserve those consequences.”
He fined her $500, ordered her to pay $500 for the cost of prosecution, and $130 court costs.
Category: Focus
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