A Glen Waverley pet store owner who illegally traded snakes and turtles has been banned from selling protected wildlife for three months.
- 100 turtles and snakes seized
- Pet store owner banned for three months
www.amazingamazon.com.au
www.dse.vic.gov.au
Snakes and about 100 turtles were seized after raids on Paul Stoke's Amazing Amazon store, as well as homes in Lysterfield, Carrum Downs, Cranbourne and Blackburn last August.
Stokes, of Lysterfield, yesterday pleaded guilty in Dandenong Magistrates Court to 39 charges, including five counts of illegally importing wildlife, 27 counts of failing to maintain a record book, and seven breaches of his commercial wildlife licence.
The 35-year-old was fined $8000, ordered to pay $1700 in costs and stripped of his licence to sell protected Australian wildlife for three months from September.
Department of Sustainability and Environment officers and police conducted the raids after a 10-month operation code-named Operation Mystic.
A DSE spokeswoman said Stokes had illegally bought a black-headed python and a children's python and sold a centralian carpet python and a diamond python to an unlicensed person.
She said the snakes, along with the Murray and eastern long-necked turtles, would be returned to the legal wildlife trade.
Stoke's employee Peter Euvrard also pleaded guilty to charges of having illegal control of a Darwin carpet python and two stimsons pythons, and breaching the conditions of his assistant wildlife dealer's licence.
Euvrard, of Carrum Downs, 40, was fined $2000 plus $200 costs but escaped conviction.
DSE senior compliance officer Glenn Sharp said being allowed to trade protected Australian wildlife was a privilege.
"We expect people with commercial dealers' licences to lead the way in legal and responsible trading of wildlife, and anything less is a betrayal of the community and the environment," he said.
"People should be able to go into pet shops and buy legally obtained, disease-free wildlife."
