A Napier man who traded in ivory has been fined $8000.

Patrick Cooper, 62, a natural therapist, was sentenced in Napier District Court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to five charges of trading in endangered species.

Cooper's lawyer Scott Jefferson told Judge Tony Adeane the ivory Cooper had imported was antique and had not been recently taken from an elephant and therefore had not encouraged the trade of new ivory.

But Conservation Department lawyer Brett Tantrum said Cooper had made a "very deliberate effort to circumvent the [Trade in Endangered Species] Act" to bring endangered items into the country.

The judge said there was a clear need to impose a penalty that deterred others from offending in the same way. He fined Cooper $1600 and imposed court costs of $130 on each of five charges and ordered him to contribute $600 toward the cost of DNA testing carried out by the department.

Cooper's offending came to light in June 2012 when quarantine inspectors carrying out a routine inspection of mail arriving in New Zealand found a box addressed to Cooper containing a large, carved tusk from an African Elephant.

Sent from an address in France, the package stated the contents were "ornament, resin".

Cooper had bought the tusk for $3548.51 and had made arrangements for it to be imported into New Zealand.

In email correspondence he told the seller to fill out a customs declaration to declare the package contained a resin ornament so it would not attract attention.

A search of Cooper's house in July 2012, found another item of ivory. Cooper had tried to sell the item twice on Trade Me with buy now prices of $750 and $695, but it failed to sell.

Following enquiries with Trade Me a further two pieces of ivory were surrendered by someone who had purchased it on the trading website, both of which had been previously purchased by Cooper on eBay. One piece was bought for $136 and sold on Trade Me for $455.

A forensic examination of Cooper's computer revealed a large number of documents indicating that he was aware that international trade in ivory was illegal.

In an email to one Trade Me purchaser Cooper said domestic trade was legal and it was only "cross borders" trade that was illegal.

The documents also revealed Cooper gave instructions on how to post items in order to defraud detection at the border. He advised declaring products as being made from resin and to declare a low value on the piece and specifically stated the purpose was to avoid coming to the attention of "Customs or thieves".

A global ban on commercially trading ivory was imposed in 1989 because African and Asian elephants are an endangered species at high risk of extinction. The trade ban was imposed by 175 countries, including New Zealand, that are parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna.

Cooper has never held, or applied for, a permit to trade in elephant ivory.

There has only been one previous conviction for illegally importing ivory.

In 2013 Auckland man Jiezhen Jiang pleaded guilty to eight charges of trading in an endangered species without an appropriate permit and was fined a total of $12,000.