Farmer atwar with MPI over dirty boots
A South Canterbury farmer says being fined for not declaring his dirty boots at the border is an ‘‘injustice’’ and his fight is ‘‘not over yet’’.
Jeremy Talbot, 63, appeared before two justices of the peace in the Christchurch District Court yesterday for making an erroneous declaration – an offence under the Biosecurity Act.
Talbot – an agricultural machinery dealer and former South Canterbury Federated Farmers arable section chairman – told the court he was a member of the organisation’s biosecurity committee.
A Federated Farmers spokesperson confirmed Talbot was a member but said it did not have a biosecurity committee.
Four Ministry for Primary Industries staff appeared as witnesses at yesterday’s judge-alone trial.
The court was told Talbot was returning from a six-day work trip to the United Kingdom on December 10 last year, when a quarantine officer at Christchurch International Airport noted he had skipped a section of his passenger arrival card.
The official repeatedly asked him to say what countries he had visited in the previous month, but Talbot replied: ‘‘I’ve just been overseas . . . I’m from New Zealand.’’
The man said Talbot became increasingly impatient, and he sent him to have his luggage X-rayed.
The X-ray machine operator detected organic matter on the soles of a pair of boots, and asked another staff member to search Talbot’s bag. ‘‘My inspection revealed the shoes to be contaminated with plant material and with soil,’’ he said.
The man described Talbot as ‘‘confrontational from the start’’. Several staff members saw him demanding the man’s personal details and threatening to call Primary Industries Minister Damien O’Connor.
Talbot was issued a $400 infringement notice, but left without paying.
Talbot claimed the ministry employee was aggressive and repeatedly jabbed his finger at the arrival card while saying ‘‘you filled it out wrong’’.
The staff member denied this. Talbot claimed he made a formal complaint about the man’s behaviour. He said the boots, which he carried into the courtroom in a clear plastic bag, might have picked up some debris after he ran through a wet car park but he had not used them for ‘‘any outdoor activities as described in the [ministry] guidebook’’.
‘‘I walked across the car park, that was it. I didn’t think they had anything on them, to be honest.’’
Ministry lawyer John Whitcombe said Talbot was very experienced on biosecurity matters, particularly given his job as a farm machinery dealer.
Talbot had set up a cleaning plant in the UK, where farm machinery was dismantled and steam cleaned to reduce biosecurity risks.
Justice of the Peace Andrew Webster fined Talbot $400 and ordered him to pay $500 to the ministry. ‘‘Working with officers instead of against them might work in your favour. Threats to the minister don’t really wash with us,’’ he told Talbot.
Talbot said the infringement would likely have a severe impact on his business. ‘‘We are currently rated as a class 1 importer. We have the top rating with [the ministry] ... that’s why I’m here today, to defend that reputation. I can see this causing no end of obstruction.’’
After his sentence was handed down, Talbot called out: ‘‘This is an injustice and it’s not over yet’’. He was seen muttering something at a ministry quarantine officer as he left the courtroom.
Talbot said he planned to appeal his sentence because the ministry took more than six months to provide CCTV footage of the airport incident and when it did, it was in an ‘‘unusable format’’.