An Australian expatriate who tried to illegally export arms components into Papua New Guinea has been sentenced to a 12-month good behaviour bond and ordered to pay over ten thousand US dollars to a charity.
The Age newspaper reports that 40-year-old Ian Andrew Kit Chung Chow, pleaded guilty the Melbourne Magistrate's Court to one charge of exporting prohibited components used to manufacture ammunition.
Chow was a prominent businessman in PNG when he instigated the export of gunpowder, cartridges, primer and propellant from Australia last year in boxes that were marked as containing household items and ingredients for making biscuits.
Chow is the managing director of the Lae Biscuit Company.
The magistrate accepted the view the components were not for criminal use, but instead to make ammunition for the local gun club, of which Chow was president.
