A Cache Creek resident caught purchasing bear parts in a sting operation pleaded guilty on Monday and was sentenced to an $18,000 fine.
Hong Hui Xie, 48, was sentenced in Kamloops provincial court on six counts of trafficking under the provincial Wildlife Act. Lawyers for the Crown and defence made a joint submission to judge Roy Dickey, asking for an $18,000 fine, $3,000 of which will go to the Habitat Conservation Fund.
Prosecutor Jim MacAuley detailed in provincial court the undercover operation by conservation officers, who sold Xie about $1,300 worth of bear gall bladders, paws and deer meat on three occasions in late 2015 and in the summer of 2016. They were given his contact number by another man who pleaded guilty to similar charges.
Despite the guilty plea, defence lawyer Mitch Foster suggested Xie may have been drawn in due to his extremely limited English. An interpreter was used in court on Monday.
Foster also noted the unusual reverse sting operation, akin to police selling drugs to users and then arresting them.
“It’s buying. This is not normally what we think of as trafficking,” Foster said, adding conservation officers could have kept up the purchasing for years.
“It’s almost like putting three or four radar cameras in a line.”
MacAuley said undercover conservation officers made efforts to ensure Xie understood what he was doing was illegal.
“Mr. Xie then said [in one transaction] he read of a case in the Lower Mainland where someone was buying and selling meat and there were fines of up to $200,000,” MacAuley said.
Dickey also noted Xie was uncomfortable doing the transaction in a parking lot and wanted instead to go inside a restaurant.
Xie owns a restaurant in Cache Creek. He has three children and has been in Canada for 25 years. He has no criminal record.
Foster said he purchased the products for his own herbal therapy after Western medicine failed him.
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