After promising to pay SPCA $50,000 as a mark of remorse and pleading guilty to consumer fraud when re-packaging over three million eggs laid by caged chickens and marketing them as free range, Xue Chen said he should be sentenced to community detention only. The High Court confirmed his sentence of twelve months’ home detention.
Community detention imposes a night-time curfew, allowing freedom of movement in normal working hours. Home detention allows movement outside home only as agreed with Probation Service.
Over a twenty-five month period, Chen perpetrated the fraud through his west Auckland company: Gold Chick. His company leased a property in Henderson which did have chickens running free range. The High Court was told Chen augmented his usual supply of free range eggs with caged eggs. To hide the fraud, he used unmarked rental vans to uplift caged eggs from a supplier and had invoices delivered to a third party. Commerce Commission investigators assessed increased profit from selling caged eggs as free range to be in excess of $320,000.
Justice Gordon ruled the sentence of home detention was not ‘manifestly excessive.’ The court was told Chen spent 45 days in prison during the investigation following conviction for obstructing the course of justice. This conviction was overturned on appeal.
Chen v. R. – High Court (2.12.20)
21.005