{"id":413803,"date":"2026-05-06T02:07:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T02:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/413803\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T02:07:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T02:07:10","slug":"auckland-duo-sentenced-handed-45k-fine-for-importing-and-selling-prohibited-weapons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/413803\/","title":{"rendered":"Auckland duo sentenced, handed $45k fine for importing and selling prohibited weapons"},"content":{"rendered":"

The couple were arrested in June last year and sentenced at the Auckland District Court yesterday.<\/p>\n

A 50-year-old man was convicted on six charges of importing and selling prohibited goods, as well as one charge for unlawful possession of restricted airguns. He has been ordered to serve eight months home detention.<\/p>\n

A 49-year-old woman was convicted on one charge of possessing prohibited goods and was fined $1200. <\/p>\n

Their company was handed a $45,000 fine and was convicted on four charges of importing and one charge of selling, prohibited goods. <\/p>\n

\"AnAn illegal air rifle was uncovered during a search of the Aucklanders’ property. Photo \/ NZ Customs<\/p>\n

Customs acting chief officer fraud and prohibition Kylie Campbell said they take knife crime seriously.<\/p>\n

\u201cKnife crime is a serious threat to public safety, and it is prohibited to import offensive weapons without police consent. Customs is pleased to have been able to contribute to the safety of our communities by preventing these weapons from reaching the streets.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany people may not realise that certain types of knives, knuckle dusters, bayonets and airguns are classified as prohibited or offensive weapons, which makes them illegal to import into New Zealand. <\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, it was evident through this investigation that the couple knew they were breaking the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anyone who knows or suspects someone of smuggling illegal weapons has been urged to contact Customs via Border Protect 24hr confidential hotline on 0800 937 768.<\/p>\n

In Hawke\u2019s Bay, nine people were arrested after guns and drugs were seized as part of a crackdown on gangs.<\/a><\/p>\n

During the operation, police located 17 firearms, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, more than $30,000 in cash, approximately 4kg of cannabis, and 15g of methamphetamine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The couple were arrested in June last year and sentenced at the Auckland District Court yesterday. A 50-year-old…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413804,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[93684,74,95,51,212749,2841,8414,1349,1871,3052,6204,2082,7815,29888,305,16484,35195,8454,296,133576,111,43,139,69,212748,24035,5161,197501,15454,2742,14191,3608],"class_list":["post-413803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-45k","tag-after","tag-and","tag-auckland","tag-bayonets","tag-country","tag-couple","tag-court","tag-duo","tag-faced","tag-fine","tag-for","tag-guns","tag-handed","tag-have","tag-illegal","tag-importing","tag-including","tag-into","tag-knives","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-prohibited","tag-selling","tag-sentenced","tag-smuggled","tag-tens","tag-thousands","tag-weapons","tag-were"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}