A LOVE of all things scaly has come back to bite reptile enthusiast Rhys Levens who has copped a $4550 fine and had his illegal collection of slithering pets seized by wildlife officers.
The 27-year-old cabinetmaker was fined in Cairns Magistrates’ Court yesterday for 11 police and Nature Conservation Act charges after a search of his Bentley Park home on December 10 last year.
In Levens’ home zoo were about 20 snakes and lizards that were being kept unlawfully, including a dead lizard in the freezer and lizard eggs in an incubator.
The court was told all the reptiles were in the category of least concern for protected species apart from a highly venomous death adder which was classified as rare.
Among the haul were carpet, spotted, amethestine and water pythons as well as chameleon, thick-tailed and northern velvet geckoes.
Department of Environment and Resource Management solicitor Lynda Body said Levens held a recreational wildlife permit but it only authorised him to keep animals that he had bought, not taken from the wild.
Levens’ lawyer Bebe Mellick said his client was a “rare individual” who had been fascinated by reptiles since he was a boy and spent most weekends going bush, camping and looking at wildlife.
The animals he had brought home had all been found on roads or the side of roads or bush tracks where they were at risk of being killed or injured, Mr Mellick said.
“There is no suggestion they weren’t being properly looked after … it was his concern for their safety and well-being that caused them to be in his possession,” he said.
Some of the animals had also been given to Levens to care for by friends and it had been his intention to release them, Mr Mellick said.
Levens also pleaded guilty to two counts of stealing relating to an old police motorbike helmet and a cassowary crossing road sign that he had found during his bush trips and kept as curiosities.
No convictions were recorded.