Mother, daughter spared jail for people smuggling plot

Summarised from 2 outlets · Updated 13 Oct, 05:02 · Archive

A mother and daughter avoided jail after attempting to smuggle their partners, Chinese nationals who arrived by boat, across Australia.

A mother and daughter in New South Wales were spared jail after pleading guilty to conspiring to harbour unlawful non-citizens. Hong Shuyan, 56, and Zhang Zhongfang, 34, had schemed to collect their partners from a remote landing area on Western Australia's Kimberley coast, midway between Broome and Darwin, and transport them to Sydney. Their partners were among 15 people smuggled into Australia on an Indonesian fishing boat that landed on the coast two years ago.

The scheme involved hiring a van and driver, Sun Shuai, a 29-year-old Chinese national, to make the thousands-of-kilometre journey. The trip was funded by Zhang, and the trio communicated constantly via WeChat about their movements. When they learned that border force officers had detained several unlawful maritime arrivals, they panicked. One WeChat message read: 'We're screwed.' They abandoned the plan and left Broome without collecting their targets, though they did establish contact through phone calls.

A NSW District Court judge described the attempt as 'an isolated one-off incident' that was 'an unsophisticated plan with a great risk of failure and detection'. All three pleaded guilty to their roles in the April 2024 plot.

How it is being reported

• 'We're screwed': How people smuggling plot came undoneA mother and daughter's elaborate scheme to hide two unlawful non-citizens who arrived by boat has been laid bare as they were spared jail time.Perth Now · 13 Oct, 04:42
• 'We're screwed': How people smuggling plot came undoneA mother and daughter's elaborate scheme to hide two unlawful non-citizens who arrived by boat has been laid bare as they were spared jail time.The West Australian · 13 Oct, 04:42

In this story: Hong Shuyan · Zhang Zhongfang · Sun Shuai · Australia · Western Australia · Broome · Darwin · NSW District Court

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