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Company and director of nursery fined $42,500 for breaking plant import quarantine rules

Elliott Wholesale Nursery Limited is a Ministry for Primary Industries registered Post Entry Quarantine (PEQ) facility. Under the Biosecurity Act, imported plants should be in quarantine for 3 months. Jeffrey Wayne Elliott (65) and Elliott Wholesale Nursery Limited were sentenced in the Christchurch District Court today on one charge under the Biosecurity Act. They earlier pleaded guilty following a successful prosecution by the Ministry for Primary Industries. “Mr Elliot is highly experienced and knew the quarantine regulations. These rules are there for a reason – to protect New Zealand from any potential pests and diseases which could be a risk to our biosecurity,” says MPI regional manager, investigations south, Gerald Anderson. In September 2022, Elliott’s Wholesale Nursery imported 600 Nandina domestica tissue culture – an evergreen shrub from Australia. The plants were unpacked and placed in a Post Entry Quarantine (PEQ) facility quarantine, where they needed to remain for 3 months. However, after just one day, Mr Elliot removed 220 of these plants, placing them in a non PEQ area. “To avoid detection and to circumnavigate the biosecurity rules designed to protect New Zealand from potentially unwanted pests and diseases – he replaced these plants with similar looking domestic plants, which he admitted doing to an employee who questioned him. “When an MPI inspector conducted an audit – the nursery passed because at the time, the inspector believed the swapped plants were the imported nandina plants from Australia.