Talk about an expensive sanga… Australian Border Force (ABF) officials fined a New Zealand grandmother more than $3,000 at Brisbane Airport for a chicken sandwich she claimed she had forgotten was in her backpack.
Seventy-seven-year-old June Armstrong was on her way to Brisbane for a three-month family visit and house-sitting adventure but couldn’t have imagined what was about to transpire.
Before taking off on an early morning flight from Christchurch Airport, the Canterbury woman picked up a sealed gluten-free chicken and lettuce sandwich, which she said she intended to eat onboard the flight.
However, the Kiwi grandmother fell asleep during the roughly four-hour journey and forgot to eat the sandwich before touching down at the Queensland airport.
“I sat down and ate some of my muffin and I really didn’t feel like it so I threw the rest away, but I put the sandwich in my small backpack,” she told the NZ Herald.
“I just clearly forgot. I am very forgetful, but not forgetful enough to be diagnosed with dementia.”
While Armstrong declared her prescription medicine in the standard declaration form she filled during the flight, the traveller overlooked the hidden sandwich in her bag. And when it was checked at Brisbane Airport, ABF officials found the hidden sandwich.
“I said, ‘Oh, I forgot about that, I’m sorry. Could you throw it away for me?’. He just kept going through my bag,” she explained.
After the official left the passenger with her bag for while, he returned and said, “Twelve points, 3300”.
“I said, ‘What does that mean?’ and he said, ‘Twelve points, $3300′,” said Armstrong, who started sobbing when she realised the man wasn’t kidding.
“I was just sobbing and said ‘$3300 for a little sandwich?’”
After an official offered her some water and a seat, the New Zealander called her husband, who had arrived a few days earlier in the country and was waiting to pick her up from the airport.
“My husband kept saying, ‘Just pay it.’ I said, ‘It’s our pension, we can’t afford this’,” she said.
“Dumbfounded”
Armstrong paid the NZ$3700 fine, but when she tried to appeal the infringement, upon “strong advice” from ABF staff, she did not receive a response from the bureau.
“I think of it night and day, I now am on sleeping tablets,” she wrote in another email to the department one month later.
“I am consumed by how much this fine was and how much it will affect our lives.”
Now, six months after the incident, Armstrong is convinced she will not recoup her loss.
“I should let it go, and my husband says I should, but they just don’t give me any answers,” she said.
“Everybody I show the fine to is dumbfounded, they just can’t believe it.”
A spokeswoman for the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry told the Herald Armstrong required a permit to bring the sandwich through the airport and into Australia.
“Meat has strict import conditions which can change quickly based on disease outbreaks,” the spokeswoman said.
“Uncanned meats, including vacuum-sealed items, are not allowed into Australia unless accompanied by an import permit.
“Where travellers fail to declare risk items… they may be given an infringement notice up to AU$6260 ($6790).”
Brisbane Airport picked up four wins at the recent Australian Airports Association (AAA) National Industry Awards in Melbourne.
