Tauranga housewife convicted for attempting to import illegal plants and seeds

Zureen Tahir, 41, from Judea, pleaded guilty to three charges in the Tauranga District Court. Photo / File

Deliberate breaches of the Biosecurity Act landed a Tauranga housewife in court. Sandra Conchie reveals what sparked the woman's offending.

A Tauranga housewife, who was keen to set up her own plant business, has been convicted of trying to importing illegal plants, seeds and cuttings from overseas.

On at least one occasion Zureen Tahir, 41, of Judea, succeeded in avoiding detection.

Tahir pleaded guilty to two representative charges of attempting to possess unauthorised goods, namely live plants and seeds, in the Tauranga District Court today .

She also admitted a further charge of possession of unauthorised goods, namely live plants, also knowing it was illegal to do so.

Each of the charges laid by the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) attracts a maximum penalty of five years' prison.

MPI's summary of facts reveals that on 11 occasions between June 8, 2018, and April last year Tahir ordered several different varieties of live plants, cuttings and seeds from America, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Thailand and Taiwan.

This included orders made through e-Bay for Pilea Peperomiodies Chinese Money plant seeds from Hong Kong and Singapore and Lotus Lantern Flower Pot seeds from China.

Most of the parcels containing the contraband were intercepted at the Customs international mail centre and later destroyed.

The intercepted parcels were falsely declared as either plastic particles, garden supplies, greeting card and a gift/no commercial value/education purposes only.

However, some of the orders Tahir made for live plants, seeds and cuttings from America, Singapore, China and Thailand were not intercepted at the mail centre.

Despite Tahir being sent warning letters about the potential risk and her obligations, she made further orders and began using fictitious names to try to avoid further detection.

On January 17 last year that Tahir also ordered a Hoya Latifoya plant and five root cuttings from Thailand but only received the live plant by post on February 8 that year.

In May last year investigators from the MPI accompanied by a botany scientist searched Tahir's home and found no plants which posed a biosecurity risk.

Tahir admitted to investigators that she knew what she was doing was wrong, and claimed she had always intended to meet with MPI officials to do things correctly.

She wanted to sell the plants to make enough money, so she did not have to return to work.

The ministry's senior prosecutor, Morgan Dunn, told Judge John MacDonald that a significant amount of community work was appropriate, rather than a fine.

Dunn said this was not "one-off offending" as once Tahir came to MPI's attention she carried on offending more than once despite receiving warning letters to desist.

Tahir's lawyer, Jessica Rose, concurred community work was the appropriate sentence.

Rose said her client initially got involved in this offending due to her naivety and she had not fully appreciated the harm her actions could have caused.

Tahir, a stay-at-home mother, with a passion for plants and horticulture, unfortunately, then put her "blinkers on" instead of talking to MPI, she said.

Rose said her client, who was a first-time offender before the courts, was "extremely ashamed" and undertook a significant amount of volunteer work in the community.

Judge MacDonald said he was prepared to accept there was an element of naivety to Tahir's offending and that she was ashamed and remorseful.

The judge said it was so fortunate that most of the parcels were intercepted and Tahir now understood the severe biosecurity risk these items could pose to the country.

Tahir was sentenced to 200 hours' community.