Rifle owner fined for import without licence [1]
Monday, November 30, 2020 - 18:26
Feinga ki he Lotu Fanguna who was convicted of importing a .22 rifle without a licence, which he ordered from the United States, was fined $500 pa’anga, at the Nuku'alofa Supreme Court.
Lord Chief Justice Whitten QC sentenced the accused on November 26, when the accused changed his plea from not guilty to guilty.
The accused said that he had a licence for the importation of the rifle.
However, the Prosecutor indicated that the Crown had seen a copy of the licence but that the date of it was illegible.
Consideration
Lord Chief Justice Whitten said this was a case of ignorance and error, not one of wilful disregard of the law or a display of any overt criminal intent.
The defendant ordered the rifle from the United States earlier this year at a cost of US$250.
He already had a licence for the importation of a separate .22 rifle. The consignment containing the rifle in this case arrived in Tonga on April 4, 2020.
On April 14, he submitted an application for an import licence for the rifle. On April 16, the defendant sought to clear the rifle from Customs.
His licence application was approved on April 20 this year but the licence was not issued to him until April 23. In the meantime, on April 21 he was arrested for this offence.
The defendant has no previous convictions. He is married with three children and is employed primarily in farming his tax allotment and he also does some carving.
He expressed remorse at the mistake he had made and assured the court that it would never happen again. He asked for a month to pay the fine proposed by the Crown.
The defendant was then convicted of causing the importation and sentenced to a fine of $500.
The fine is to be paid by January 8, 2021 or in default serve one-month imprisonment. If the fine is paid by that date, the rifle is to be released to the defendant.
“However, if the fine is not paid by that date, then pursuant to section.108 of the Act, the Chief Executive Officer may order that the rifle be liable to forfeiture,” said the Chief Justice.
The Crown also sought an order for forfeiture of the rifle, submitting that the defendant could there after apply for a 'possession licence' from the police for the rifle.
The Chief Justice said the possibility is not referred to anywhere within the Act, since the Prosecutor was not able to provide any other authority or provision which supported that procedure.
In his view, his forfeiture of the rifle, bearing in mind its cost, in addition to the penalty submitted by the Crown would be an excessive punishment in the circumstances of the case, he said.
If the fine is not paid by that date, then pursuant to s.108 of the Act, the Chief Executive Officer may order that the rifle be liable to forfeiture.