Outlaw taxidermist and wildlife trader Keerthi Raja Eswaran, 35, locked up after latest batch of wildlife offences

ONE of Australia’s most prolific wildlife offenders, Keerthi Raja Eswaran, has finally been jailed

Keerthi Eswaran, pictured in happier times, has been jailed over recidivist wildlife offending.

ONE of Australia’s most prolific wildlife offenders, Keerthi Raja Eswaran, has finally been jailed.

Eswaran, 35, a rogue endangered species specimen trader on Friday began serving an effective 23-month jail term, to be suspended after 13 months served.

Keerthi Eswaran, during his taxidermy phase.

Supreme Court Justice Peter Barr said he had “reluctantly” concluded that the only appropriate jail sentence for Eswaran was an actual prison sentence.

Eswaran, of Millner, was in 2017 handed a 10-month fully suspended jail sentence after pleading guilty to more than 350 wildlife and guns charges, a rap sheet Justice Barr had to confirm was “not a misprint”.

Part of the haul investigators found on a raid at Eswaran’s Driver home. Picture: Supplied/Australian Border Force

Eswaran’s fresh offending put him in breach of the suspended sentence, which Justice Barr ordered he serve in full, plus 13 months for the new charges.

“You have accepted responsibility for your offending although you may still not appreciate how serious this offending is regarded by the law,” Justice Barr said.

He said many conservationists would “take offence” to Eswaran’s description of himself as a nature lover.

Parks and Wildlife Ranger Alice Donne with specimen’s seized from Eswaran in a previous raid. Alice holds a Kookaburra.

Eswaran’s latest offending revolved around an eBay business he had trading in exotic animal specimens, including parts of ocelots, baboons, snakes, birds and monkeys.

“I do note the considerable number of wombat skulls,” Justice Barr said.

Eswaran’s lawyer, Peter Maley, had argued his client’s offending was less serious because he did not kill the animals, and in the case of the wombat skulls, had hacked them off of roadkill interstate.

Mr Maley said not everyone in the community was disgusted by collecting animal specimens.

“It’s like climate change, it depends who you talk to,” he said.

“He’s not killing white rhinoceroses and chopping off their horns.”

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Northern Territory Prosecutor Ian Rowbottam said Eswaran’s previous sentence was “imposed in the belief, wrongly … that Mr Eswaran was a wildlife lover who wouldn’t come back before the court again”.

“But obviously, all of us were mistaken in that regard.”