Re Pamela D'Mello's post of a Goan woman smuggling sausages into New Zealand, the 200 community service hours she received seems a bit severe.
It appears to me that the judge went ballistic on her due to her statement that she wanted to see if she could get away with it, rather than expressing remorse. Also he seemed a bit paranoid thinking India was a source of foot and mouth diseased pork. In Canada the same offence would get you anything from the meat thrown away to a max of an $800 fine. Governments all over are getting tougher on meat importation by passengers. A decade ago they were less bothered but it seems that they are increasingly aware of the risk of infecting local livestock somehow. Could anyone enlighten on how eating pork by humans could infect local animals? Coming back to 200 hours of community service, that would be the equivalent of 29 full working days which would have earned the woman more than the fine that was proposed, so the judge wasn't doing her any favours. Roland Francis Toronto.
