livingart Posted May 7, 2011 Report Share Posted May 7, 2011 Gecko smugglers sentenced http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/gecko-smugglers-jailed-4159068 It will be a cold winter in prison for two German men who admitted travelling to New Zealand to plunder native wildlife. 56-year-old Dieter Ernst and 47-year-old Thorsten Richartz have been sentenced to four and half months in prison, for attempting to smuggle out rare geckos. They admitted taking four jewelled geckos from two sites in Otago, and one on Banks Peninsula. D.O.C's Robin Thomas says the illegal trade in rare New Zealand geckos does not seem to be going away. It is estimated there are just five-thousand of the species left in the wild Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GZ_Loach Posted May 7, 2011 Report Share Posted May 7, 2011 Its amazing how someone can get drunk, get in a car and then crash and only get sentaced to community work - yet smuggling gecko's gets you 4.5 months in prison Same goes with animal cruelty, rarely will someone go to prison for disfiguring an animal etc - yet "stealing" a gecko will get you in prison... go figure :dunno: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Insect Direct Posted May 7, 2011 Report Share Posted May 7, 2011 "sentenced to 4 1/2 months in prison. But because of the time they have already served Dieter Ernst and Thorsten Richartz will be released in a few days. They were arrested two months ago." two months + a few days doesnt equal 4 1/2 months :sage: must be getting let out early on good behaviour lol GZ_Loach driving a car drunk and crashing it, is a bit different to intentionally travelling across the world to smuggle endangered wild life. If you drive drunk and crash your car, your a b idiot...mechanics are not cheap :facepalm: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GZ_Loach Posted May 7, 2011 Report Share Posted May 7, 2011 "driving a car drunk and crashing it, is a bit different to intentionally travelling across the world to smuggle endangered wild life. Well you are intentionally getting in the car to drive, you can't say oops sorry officer i tripped and fell into my car and it started up and drove down the road and into a pole by itself :roey: further more, you are not putting someone elses life in danger taking a gecko. And with that said I would rather a person lived and not a gecko, end of the day someones life is worth more than a lizard - which is why I'm saying its pathetic what sentances judges give to people for certain crimes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted May 7, 2011 Report Share Posted May 7, 2011 I actually think they got off lighting, I mean a couple of months in a minimum security PC prison in NZ but if they had got away with it then they would have got more money.. Will certainly show there mates there is not really any punishment for it.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Insect Direct Posted May 7, 2011 Report Share Posted May 7, 2011 GZ_Loach - yeah probably. i think the smugglers got off lightly. smuggling is not as harmless as one may think Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emaytiti Posted May 7, 2011 Report Share Posted May 7, 2011 I actually think they got off lighting, I mean a couple of months in a minimum security PC prison in NZ but if they had got away with it then they would have got more money.. Will certainly show there mates there is not really any punishment for it.. Agreed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GZ_Loach Posted May 7, 2011 Report Share Posted May 7, 2011 A big fine would have been appropriate aswell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David R Posted May 7, 2011 Report Share Posted May 7, 2011 More appropriate than jail time, IMO. The punishment should be proportionate to the crime, so the risk of big money from selling rare geckos smuggled out of NZ should be punished with a similarly large fine, maybe double the market value of what they're caught with... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GZ_Loach Posted May 7, 2011 Report Share Posted May 7, 2011 More appropriate than jail time, IMO. The punishment should be proportionate to the crime, so the risk of big money from selling rare geckos smuggled out of NZ should be punished with a similarly large fine, maybe double the market value of what they're caught with... That can sometimes cause more problems as they might end up trying to steal more to cover the fine, If they were locked up and fined that would deter them even more than just a fine alone... age old saying "time is money" take away their time and you take away their ability to make money (in this case steal) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted May 7, 2011 Report Share Posted May 7, 2011 The punishment should be proportionate to the crime, The average sentence for kidnapping a human is about 5 years, there are 6 billion humans and only 5000 of the geckos so that's 1.2 million times as many humans making the appropriate proportionate sentence for smuggling jewelled geckos 6 million years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GZ_Loach Posted May 7, 2011 Report Share Posted May 7, 2011 Thats like comparing chalk & cheese Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fruju Posted May 8, 2011 Report Share Posted May 8, 2011 Sure, it might be a small sentence. But that will go on the record, and when going through customs they will have a very hard time trying to smuggle any animals through. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GZ_Loach Posted May 8, 2011 Report Share Posted May 8, 2011 Sure, it might be a small sentence. But that will go on the record, and when going through customs they will have a very hard time trying to smuggle any animals through. Thats one good thing about customs, pretty hard to get much past them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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