By 3 News online staff
A sentence of three months and a deportation order have been handed down to a man caught trying to smuggle equipment used for bank card skimming into the country.
The 48-year-old Polish man, Jaroslaw Pilat, was caught with the devices at Auckland International Airport on April 22, Fairfax NZ reports.
He was sentenced in the Manukau District Court on Thursday.
Pilat arrived in New Zealand after travelling from Malaysia via Melbourne. Customs officials say his travel arrangements aroused suspicion.
Customs manager of investigations Shane Panettiere says Pilat claimed he had stolen some of the equipment from a television decoder in a Vietnam hotel and that it would give him access to free television in Poland.
“Mr Pilat could not provide a plausible reason for bringing the items into New Zealand, aside from his suggestion that he always carried them,” says Pannettiere.
Pilat was also carrying $15,000 cash in various denominations, which Customs argues didn’t match his claim that he was a mechanic earning around US$12,000 a year.
3 News