A man caught with six eggs from endangered species in his underwear as he was preparing to fly to Bangkok was fined $20,000 Monday by a judge who rejected his claim that he only wanted to surprise his girlfriend.
Wayne Frederick Floyd pleaded guilty in February to exporting regulated native specimens without a permit or exemption, an offence that carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence.
Although Judge Martin Sides called it a commercial venture, he said he didn't mandate jail time because the eggs had come from a collection of birds at Floyd's home and hadn't been taken from the wild.
Floyd was about to board a flight from Sydney to Bangkok, Thailand, last November when a customs officer frisked him and noticed a suspicious bulge around his groin, the New South Wales District Court was told. A strip search revealed six eggs hidden inside a stocking in his underwear.
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