New Zealand's future immigration minister.

Stuff reports 

Student sold banned algae on Trade Me

DAVID CLARKSON

A woman who breached New Zealand's biosecurity laws by importing moss balls cried as she was sentenced today.

Jasmine Louise Maxwell, 20, a university student in Christchruch, had pleaded guilty to seven charges relating to breaches of the Biosecurity Act and the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act.

It is hard to believe a New Zealander could be this stupid. I have a Swedish " sister " who brought an apple through customs and got fined. She couldn't figure out how she forgot just how strict we are.

"Maxwell imported moss balls and sold some online.

They are an aggressive algae used in the northern hemisphere to clean fish tanks but would have caused a disaster on the scale of didymo if they had got into New Zealand's waterways.

The moss balls are an absolutely prohibited import."
We may not have dodged this stuff up yet.

The Ministry of Primary Industries told the Christchurch District Court it was concerned that Maxwell wanted to work in the airline industry.

"She's a person who cannot be trusted to go through biosecurity on a very regular basis," prosecutor Grant Fletcher said.

He said the consequences of the moss balls being released "could have been utterly catastrophic and could still be catastrophic".

Biosecurity officials cannot tell if any of the moss balls she imported have got into the Avon River.

If only one filament has reached the river or the Avon-Heathcote Estuary it could cause an outbreak that would be difficult to control.

And cost us millions of dollars.

"It will be watched extremely carefully by the ministry," Fletcher said.

Judge Jane Farish ruled out a discharge without conviction and told Maxwell she was being over-emotive in saying the offending on her record would condemn her to life as a cleaner or shop assistant.

How odd. She see's herself as so vastly superior.

She should continue with her studies and get a good degree, the judge told her.

Maxwell would have to admit to employers that she had been silly when she was younger and had learnt a hard lesson.

Fletcher said Maxwell's offending had resulted from "immaturity, vast stupidity and youthful arrogance".

She had continued with her activities even after a warning from the ministry.

Now this is bloody scary we can see her arrogance in the cleaner come shop assistant comment but this offending occurred after a warning from ministry. My gut feeling is the Judge should have thrown the book at her.

The court was told that Maxwell had a university qualification that included biosecurity. She is now working part-time and continuing to study.

Biosecurity included ?

Defence counsel Phillip Allan said Maxwell had been interested in the moss balls and had sold some for between $14 and $16 on Trade Me. She had not intended to make a lot of money out of the sales.

She had expressed her regret and had at times been overwhelmed by the prosecution. She had also been dealing with family and earthquake stress at the time.

"But for the earthquake, Miss Maxwell may be been thinking a little clearer and all this may not have happened," Allan said.

Maxwell began crying when the judge listed the maximum penalties, which include five years' jail and a fine of $100,000.

It is hard to feel sympathy when she had been given a warning and knows the potential consequences of her actions for NZ Inc. Or are biosecurity qualifications a joke ? 

She told Maxwell: "The consequences of release within New Zealand would be severe. It would not be dissimilar to didymo. Control would be difficult to manage and expensive."

She assessed Maxwell as immature and recognised that she was highly remorseful. She accepted that her mind had not been "on the job" at the time.

The judge imposed a sentence of 250 hours of community work to reflect the seriousness of the offences, and said she hoped Community Probation could find an agency placement for her.

Cleaning up sea squirts from a marina sounds good to me it is a battle we have lost but 250 hours of that would focus her mind.