Lizards in undies smuggler sent to jail

A German visitor who tried to smuggle 44 skinks and geckos out of New Zealand in his underpants has been jailed.

Hans Kurt Kubus, 58, was sentenced to 14 weeks jail and fined $5000 when he appeared in the Christchurch District Court yesterday after pleading guilty to five charges of trading in exploited species and two of hunting protected wildlife.

Kubus arrived in Christchurch last November from Germany and spent three weeks travelling around the South Island in a campervan, collecting 44 species of skinks and geckos to smuggle out of the country.

The reptiles, two of which were on a threatened list, could fetch up to $2000 each on the black market.

Customs staff stopped Kubus last month at Christchurch International Airport with a package containing the reptiles in his underwear. There was also a gecko in a sock in his luggage.

Customs records showed Kubus visited New Zealand in 2001, 2004, 2008 and 2009. In 2008, he visited with a Swiss reptile dealer.

Judge Colin Doherty said: "You plundered part of the wildlife of this country. You were selective. You knew what you were after, in my view."

Kubus went to "great pains" to show that he was a collector and was not intending to trade the reptiles, but wanted to add them to his collection, the judge said.

The court was told Kubus was not aware most of the females were pregnant, which the judge found hard to believe if Kubus was the avid enthusiast and collector he was at pains to portray to the court.

"It's unsurprising if you were wanting to increase the yield of your harvest you had bias towards adult females," the judge said.

The reptiles were "unique" to New Zealand because they produced live young whereas most produced eggs.

"They also have particular note for our country because some are very slow to mature. They take up to eight years to first breed," the judge said.

"You came here specifically to cherry-pick these animals."

Department of Conservation (DOC) prosector Mike Bodie said since the interception four geckos and one skink had died and of the 11 skink babies born since the seizure, four were stillborn.

Experts believed the deaths were caused by the immense stress, he said.

DOC regarded the smuggling as extremely serious, Bodie said.

"This is the most serious case of its kind detected in New Zealand for a decade or more. It's similar to stealing our family silver," he said.

Defence counsel Peter Maciaszek said Kubus had an extensive collection of reptiles at his home. .

Kubus had made an early guilty plea, been co-operative and acknowledged he had travelled to New Zealand to collect lizards for his own purpose, Maciaszek said.

- © Fairfax NZ News