Coles imported contraband honey

A BIOSECURITY officer doing her grocery shopping led to Coles Supermarkets being prosecuted for importing a prohibited honey product into Tasmania, the Hobart Magistrates Court has heard.

Coles pleaded guilty to one count of importing a restricted material.

Prosecutor Stephen Hall yesterday told the court a biosecurity officer was shopping at Coles’ Bridgewater store in June last year when she noticed a raw honey product from interstate on the shelf.

Honeycomb and raw bees wax cannot be brought into the state without authority to do so.

Mr Hall said Biosecurity Tasmania investigated and, with the help of Coles employees, found nine Tasmanian Coles stores were stocking the 350g jars of raw honey with honeycomb from an interstate producer. When it became aware, Coles quarantined the stock and sent it back to Victoria.

“Biosecurity Tasmania is not aware of any adverse impacts associated with the importation,” Mr Hall said.

Coles’ lawyer Elizabeth Brimer said the supermarket giant had procedures in place to prevent prohibited items from coming into Tasmania but in this case, human error and inadvertence had allowed the honeycomb to slip through.

Ms Brimer said further measures had been put in place by Coles in the year since.

She said it was not a case where Coles had shown disregard for biosecurity measures and the company had co-operated with the investigation.

She asked Magistrate Sam Mollard to consider a fine at the lower end of the scale and to not record a conviction. Ms Brimer said the maximum penalty was $75,000.

Mr Mollard will sentence Coles next month.