Former Sydney Roosters and Brisbane Broncos prop Martin Kennedy has been jailed for four years after being found guilty of animal smuggling.
Kennedy was arrested by the AFP in 2017 for alleged illegal international wildlife trafficking, charged with a total of 41 offences.
At the time, crime operations manager Chris McDevitt said the ex-NRL player was facing up to ten years imprisonment, remarking that it was one of the most complex cases that he had seen.
“This has been a complex investigation and the scale of criminality involved in the matter has been astounding,” Commander McDevitt said.
The 30-year-old pleaded guilty in 2018 to six offences including attempting to export shingleback lizards to Sweden, importing alligator snapping turtles and neotropical stingrays from Thailand, and illegally possessing two pythons at his Sydney home.
The district court judge ruled that his excellent prospects of rehabilitation and sentenced him to the longest good-behaviour bond available.
However, the appeals court agreed with the prosecutors that the punishment was not harsh enough, sentencing him to a four-year ban on Friday.
"This is some of the most serious offending of its kind which has come before the courts," Justices Anthony Payne and Elizabeth Fullerton said.
Kennedy made his debut for the Roosters in 2009, playing 66 games for the club before moving to the Broncos in 2014.
His return to the NRL was blocked in 2015 after he was handed a doping ban by ASADA.
He was suspended for almost three years in 2016 under the NRL’s anti-doping policy for the use of growth hormones amongst other charges.
