Man jailed over gecko theft

A man who admitted trying to smuggle 16 protected jewelled geckos out of New Zealand was today sentenced to 15 weeks imprisonment.
Manfred Walter Bachmann, a German resident of Kampala, Uganda, will be immediately deported upon his release from prison.

Judge Farish said that given the value of the geckos - worth up to $200,000 in Europe - perhaps the penalty needed to be increased to deter this type of crime.

"I do need to make it abundantly clear to you that commercial trafficking of protected species is dealt with in a serious way in New Zealand."

I think that the value of the geckos is so much that it is almost better than selling drugs in europe and you dont get as harsh charges.

i also think that the gecko can be exhausted because they are a rare endangered creature and people are taking them and selling them elsewhere and because the penalty isnt that bad its not as dangerous.

This is a problem for new zealand and and should be considered as a new law that endangered, indeginous animals being taken from NZ Should have a very tough penalty.