Shanye2233

In the end this is my fault but having some common sense in new Zealand would help.

Here's what happened..

I have a flight arriving from lax to AKL with my 2yrs old and my wife is on a later flight arriving 45mins after. We have a connecting flight to SYD 8 hours later. We arrived I went up the escalators to the lounge. Never been to nz I thought why not hire a car and look around .I jumped online hired a car with hertz using my points grubbed some water two pears into my backpack and went down stairs to wait for them to arrive.

We meet up and proceeded down the way to the customs belt we were in a rush having limited time there I started to throw the bags onto the belt taking off my bumbag etc and my wife had a chat to some man sitting on the seat on the side. All of a sudden the belt stops and they ask "who does this bag belong too"? Me. I said open please he replied I opened it and he pulls out two pears I grubbed from upstairs. Who's in your party he asks and I say wife two kids pointing to them he radios another office who instructs all of us to come with him . We sit down in a customs room and he asked why I didn't declare the pears. I said declare to who nobody asked me anything. Who spoke to the customs agent my wife's states she did and the office asks why didn't you declare the fruit.I didn't know he had them she's says we only just meet . I say i was jn the business loinge came down to meet them i took the pears from there. Hang on he says you said your together now your saying you just meet something doesn't sound right he says. So I reply "listen your brain is not working correctly go put cold water on your face and come back". Now he's just as upset as I am and calls his team leader.
Again I explain the story to them I arrived earlier went up to the lounge took some food/drinks for my wife and child meet them when they landed on a later flight my wife didn't know I had the pears because she wasn't with me when I took them , and nobody spoke to me. Keep them I say.

They go outside and come back in a few mins my wife says to me tell them to look on the video camera to see where you got the pears from so when they come back I tell them and they said its not nesseccary and hit me with a $400NZ fine. They asked for my details which I gave them and we left to explore the country but from that moment no matter what happened the while experience was ruined .

A few weeks later I got a letter from the agricultural department in NZ with a $400NZ reminder . From my understanding I don't have to pay it unless I go back is that correct?

Please share your opinions.

bwiadca

Wow. I wouldn't give them a dime. I don't think you have to pay unless you want to go back.

Often1

1. What happened has happened. Your snarky comment telling Customs officials of a foreign nation that their "brains weren't working" is likely the reason they didn't exercise their discretion and let this go with a warning. As with many other things in life, snark gets you nowhere and often hurts.

2. As to the fine, don't ignore it. Either challenge it through the legal system (and understand that you probably won't win) or pay it.

3. Is a foreign country likely to pursue the debt in US courts? Not likely. But, these things have a way of sticking in various records for years and years and coming back to haunt you way down the road in some other part of the world. Maybe your name is flagged, that gets into various records shared by border / security officials, it's coded wrong so nobody knows it's about a couple of pears and so on. You also don't know that you won't be back.

4. Rock bottom, the pears were most likely purchased at a local market and brought out to the club by the caterer a couple of hours before, but from an agriculture perspective, they've been handled by people who haven't cleared agricultural inspection and that's a problem.

So, chalk it up to experience and wish that the coppers had exercised a little more discretion and perhaps lectured you a bit and kicked you loose.

Shanye2233

I'm going to write a reply back with the infringement notice that's my course. I won't be paying it and won't be back.
Hope your not right with the shared info would hate to enter another country and be denied due to this.

stewardo

The declaration is this document that you filled out to enter the country. So effectively they fined you for making and signing a false legal declaration on question five.

Going to the airside transit lounge before crossing the border into NZ is a very irregular route and the biosecurity folks would have no way of establishing where the pears had really come from - breaking the very strict laws on importing food products that Australia and New Zealand make clear on the aircraft before arrival.

You are lucky - like the US, NZ generally do not allow offenders to enter the country unless the fine is paid immediately. It is likely that they will use debt collectors or the courts in your country to pursue the outstanding amount.

I’m guessing the outright rudeness ("your brain is not working correctly go put cold water on your face and come back") to the customs officer may have caused the punishment to be upgraded from lecture to to $$ fine….

im-headed-west

Reading your initial post:
-You arrived before your wife
-You exited to the lounge, rented a car, grabbed some food, ...
-Went back to wait for your wife

you were allowed to re-enter customs ?
or is the lounge considered INSIDE customs ????

JDiver

Australia and New Zealand are absolute hell on imported fruit, and for good reason. But mainly, argue or say something sharp to a TSA agent, Customs rep etc. and you have won the battle and probably lost the war. I would hope the lesson was learned.

I would write a well thought out letter appealing the fine and send it to the address listed. You arrived after an overnight flight, you were on adrenaline, you picked up the pears in the lounge (which in many countries will only allow departing passengers), did not declare because they were pears you acquired in Enn Zed...

Hey, my friend, you asked. No offense intended here, but I would personally shed the attitude - and get it taken care of. Your entire time in NZ was ruined because of this incident? Really?

LizzyDragon84

My concern with not paying the fine is if not paying elevates it to some kind of misdemeanor or felony. At that point, NZ may try to pursue legal action in your home country. If it were me, I would not make a bad situation worse by not paying the fine. As you said yourself, this was your fault.

In the future, being patient and calm with officials (even if that's not how you feel) is critical. I've been questioned several times by immigrations/customs officials (including why I wasn't traveling with people I was meeting up with) and have always gotten through after a few minutes and a few repeated answers.

Mwenenzi

There is a lot of interaction, data transfer & data matching between Australia & New Zealand: immigration, customs, quarantine, police, tax and more.
There are 1000's of passengers flying across the Tasman sea every week who are checked electronically.

So looks as if Shanye won't be a back to NZ for many decades if he does not pay up. NZ quarantine will not forget.

Mwenenzi

Yes. Airline lounges are airside on the departure level. In NZ, Aust you exit the country through an immigration post (after security) to get airside (departure). Departures and arrival are separate with a cross over for transit passengers.

Christopher

Well, personally, for the sake of $NZ400, which is not very much in the overall scheme of life, I would simply pay the fine. Then it can all be forgotten about.

You could appeal against the fine, but I can't see why any would be successful: you did break the law and the fine was duly imposed. Even if the person adjudicating on the appeal might think that some discretion could have been exercised over the imposition of the fine, I don't see why that person would allow the appeal simply because the officials on the spot chose not to exercise that discretion.

In any case, New Zealand takes customs/agricultural offences very seriously indeed, and I am not sure that discretion to waive a fine would ever be exercised in a situation like this in NZ.

ajnz

The lounge in AKL International is in the departures area. Since the OP was connecting they would have held a boarding pass that would allow them through transit security and into the lounge. I suppose it would be possible to go backwards through transit security and back down into arrivals, but this is definitely not the usual passenger behavior at AKL and I can imagine that this would cause confusion. As someone else pointed out there's no way for the MAF officials to know where the fruit was obtained.

No kidding. With OP's location set to Sydney one would have expected some more understanding on how "imports" of fruit would be treated into NZ.

I can't say I have any problem with MAF fining the OP for this. And while it is entirely up to the OP whether they deal with the fine or ignore it, it's not something I personally would let fester. You never know when you have to go somewhere for business or personal reasons (family emergency in NZ for some reason? "Step this way sir..." on arrival? Sounds fun).

JDiver

It's been a while but thanks for verifying what I thought.

Often1

I had misread OP's home location as LAX, not SYD (not sure why). Given that it's SYD, NZ authorities will certainly send the 400 over to OZ for collection. OP's problem is that this will trash his credit and the costs will far exceed the 400 by the time it's all done.

wellyspyder

Sounds like a timely reminder to all of us, that being courteous to officials no mater what the situation you find yourself in is best, as you do not want to aggravate the situation!