Pakenham livestock agent Nathan Gibbon was convicted and fined more than $20,000 for offences breaching National Livestock Identification System regulations.
Mr Gibbon and two local cattle farmers - Kristian Bingham of Warragul and Peter Armstrong, formerly of Darnum - pleaded guilty to livestock traceability offences at Latrobe Valley Magistrates' Court on February 21.
They were sentenced by Magistrate Jacinta Studham last Wednesday, with the three men, and company Clayton Hill Pty Ltd, being fined more than $35,000 between them. Mr Gibbon and Mr Armstrong were both convicted while Mr Bingham was fined without conviction.
Ms Studham said their offences had undermined the integrity of the NLIS and threatened the meat and livestock industry with the worse case scenario resulting in animal disease.
"These were not minor administrative errors as submitted.
"The offences were deliberate and aimed at increasing profit while ignoring health and safety concerns," she said.
Ms Studham said the convictions imposed on Mr Gibbon and Mr Armstrong were for the "systemic undermining of the national meat industry and export industry."
The charges were laid under the Livestock Disease Control Act and its regulations following audits and inspections of four properties in Warragul, Darnum and Lardner in 2019.
Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions prosecutor Denny Meadows told the court last month the actions of the accused could jeopardise Australia's cattle export markets and could risk export products worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The offences related to moving and selling cattle without providing Property Identification Code (PIC) information, false vendor declarations and changing the status of NLIS devices.
Mr Gibbon, 47, faced 63 charges as the owner of a property at Lardner as well as four charges as a director of Clayton Hill Pty Ltd.
Ms Studham said Mr Gibbon ran a large operation and his offending occurred over a number of months.
She said 13 charges related to failing to forward PICs to the department for 150 cattle which carried a maximum penalty of more than $40,000.
On 31 occasions, Ms Studham said Mr Gibbon failed to upload national vendor declarations for 313 cattle, which carried a total maximum fine of $100,000.
Ms Studham said one of the charges, refusing to provide documents to authorised officers was one of the more serious charges.
On the day department staff visited his property, Ms Studham said officers scanned about 700 cattle.
Ms Studham said Mr Gibbon committed offences as a producer and livestock agent. His fines and costs totalled $20,500.
Clayton Hill Pty Ltd, a company which owns property in Warragul, was fined $1100 without conviction.
Ms Studham said Mr Armstrong, 69, had pleaded guilty to four charges, two of which involved 68 cattle in which he failed to upload national vendor declarations when he introduced them to his property in 2019.
She said one year later he made false declarations for 74 cattle that he had not bred. "That incorrect tagging led to potential buyers thinking they were vendor bred."
She said such dishonesty was a risk to the integrity of the meat industry.
Ms Studham said Mr Armstrong was a producer and exporter of cattle and there were 216 cattle on his property the day department staff attended.
While now retired in the Northern Territory, she said Mr Armstrong had not ruled out a return to the cattle industry.
She said Mr Armstrong had previously faced wildlife offences and fined him with conviction. His fines and costs totalled $6500.
Mr Bingham, 43, faced nine charges relating to offences committed on his Warragul property where he ran cattle.
Ms Studham said Mr Bingham had tagged 51 cattle as vendor bred and failed to forward PIC information to the department.
She said he had no prior convictions and was fined $8000 without conviction for the nine offences.
Ms Studham said Mr Armstrong and Mr Bingham had told the court about efforts to remediate the problems in their cattle dealings.
But, she said, it was "an obvious and deliberate problem."
"It's insulting to the system that they (the changes) were introduced subsequent to the charges," she said.