DHL Express Australia pleads guilty to illegally exporting military goods to Russia and the US
World shipping heavyweight DHL Express has pleaded guilty to illegally exporting night vision goggles and a military-style drone to Russia and the United States.
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International shipping heavyweight DHL Express has been hauled before court to explain how it allowed regulated military goods to be illegally exported to Russia and the United States.
Australian Border Force lawyer John Dickie told the Broadmeadows Magistrates’ Court on Thursday DHL’s Australian arm exported defence-regulated night vision goggles to Russia in July 2018 and military-grade drones to the US in August the same year.
DHL calls itself the “world’s leading logistics company” with 380,000 employees worldwide sending packages to more than 220 countries and territories.
It pleaded guilty yesterday to two charges of exporting prohibited items without the required permits.
The goggles, which were valued at $7330 USD (almost $11,000 AUD), were sent to Katod, Russia, a day after the company’s Department of Defence issued permit expired on July 2, according to court documents
Mr Dickie said computer records showed a DHL employee manipulated labels on the package by re-declaring it “electrical goods” instead of night vision goggles and reducing the declared value to $2000 to get it past security monitors.
In the second charge Mr Dickie said two drones worth $70,000 in total were sent to the US despite the ABF warning DHL they were not cleared for export because they didn’t have a permit.
He submitted DHL should be convicted and fined for flouting the country’s strict import and export rules to maintain the system’s integrity under its international treaty agreements.
“It (DHL) did not follow correct industry protocol,” Mr Dickie said.
“(They) would be well aware of the requirements under the Customs Act, they would be well aware of the consequences … it’s not a case of me having sent a parcel overseas having never done so before.”
But DHL lawyer Ben Petrie told the court the company took “swift action” once notified by the ABF the goggles were sent without a permit by intercepting them at London’s Heathrow Airport and returning them to Australia before they reached Russia.
Employee error led to the goggles being re-labelled and the drones sent to the US, he said, and he told the court DHL was held in high regard as an Australian Trusted Trader that had never before been convicted of exporting prohibited goods.
But he noted DHL was unable to retrieve the drones once they were sent to the US.
“DHL exports many thousands of items overseas and that’s probably pretty conservative … (and) never convicted of anything of this nature,” Mr Petrie said.
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“The US is obviously Australia’s closest ally … it isn’t chemical weapons being exported to Iran.
“There’s no suggestion here that Australia’s national interests have been compromised.”
Magistrate Timothy Hoare said the offences, while serious, were not common place for DHL and he accepted DHL was otherwise of good character.
“This was not reckless offending, this was not offending of DHL effectively thumbing their nose (at the rules),” he said.
He fined DHL $2000 without conviction and placed the company on a one-year good behaviour bond.