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A former live export industry manager has avoided an immediate prison term for falsifying Commonwealth documents which allowed a consignment of 22,000 sheep to be imported into Pakistan, where they were brutally killed in vision that shocked Australia.
Garry Robinson, who was a general manager for exporter Wellard when the sheep were killed in 2012, was sentenced in the Western Australian District Court today.
He had pleaded guilty to a charge of dishonestly influencing a public official from the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
Robinson forwarded the Department a document which he knew had been fraudulently changed in order to obtain a certificate of health for the Australian sheep aboard Wellard's livestock carrier Ocean Drover in August 2012.
Now 46, he was charged following an investigation after the sheep on the Ocean Drover were slaughtered and buried, some while they were still alive, in Pakistan.
The shipment of sheep had been refused permission to unload in Bahrain after concerns about their health.
As a result, Wellard diverted the cargo of livestock to Pakistan, where inspectors suspected the sheep were diseased.
In court, Judge Michael Gething said Robinson's offending had been serious and there was a need for deterrence.
He sentenced Robinson to 18 months jail but released him on condition of good behaviour and a $20,000 bond.
'Wrong thing for right reasons'
Robinson's lawyer Sam Vandongen earlier told the court his client had been under intense pressure and had not slept for days when he "did the wrong thing for what he thought were the right reasons".
He said Robinson had displayed signs of post traumatic stress disorder from an earlier live export scandal in 2003 in which he was involved.
At that time, the Cormo Express had not been allowed to offload sheep in Saudi Arabia, leaving them stuck on the ship for more than two months until they were donated to Eritrea.
Judge Gething accepted that in the Ocean Drover incident, Robinson felt under high pressure to find a solution for the sake of the sheep, Wellard and the reputation of the live export industry.
Three words that led to tragedy
In 2012, Robinson was Wellard's Middle East manager and also a director of the Australian Livestock Exporters Council (ALEC).
He had the job of organising the appropriate export documents.
One document issued by the Pakistan government, the No Objection Certificate (NOC), listed the health requirements necessary for approval to unload the animals, and by law, the same document was to be lodged with the Australian Government.
However, the NOC lodged by Australia had three words — "fit for breeding" — inserted into it.
The effect of this unauthorised amendment was to remove the need for the sheep to meet the listed Pakistan health requirements, including that the sheep be vaccinated.
The letter containing the unauthorised change was sent to the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, which issued the certificate of health needed to import the sheep into Pakistan.
In an email about the document to his colleagues, Robinson described the altered certificate as one that "has had magic done to it" and warned them:
"We do not want anybody to compare the magic with the original."
Calls for industry shutdown
Robinson's sentencing coincides with growing calls for the live sheep export trade to be shut down, with Labor set to formally endorse a private member's bill from Liberal MP Sussan Ley this week.
But Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has made it clear he has no intention of shutting down the trade because he believes the sector can be cleaned up.
The Government last week announced it would implement all 23 recommendations made by the McCarthy Review, which include reducing the number of sheep on vessels and jail time for those breaking the new laws.
Topics: fraud-and-corporate-crime, law-crime-and-justice, courts-and-trials, livestock, sheep-production, trade, government-and-politics, perth-6000, wa