An Australian farming lobbyist who crusaded against foreign-grown garlic has admitted that she imported potentially diseased garlic through ebay.

As head of the Australian Garlic Industry Association, Letitia Ware argued that imported garlic was a contamination risk for organic producers in Australia.

She has now pleaded guilty to 10 charges related to importing 2,000 garlic bulbs and will be sentenced in the coming days, according to ABC News.

A court found that Ms Ware, 53, used different accounts on ecommerce platform ebay to buy varieties of garlic from Romania, France and South Korea which are known carriers of xylella fastidiosa, a bacterium listed as Australia’s number one plant pest threat.

Prosecutors said Ms Ware told suppliers to describe the packages as “office supplies” and break the batches down into packages of under 150g each to avoid detection by quarantine officials. 

Australia has very strict policies on importing fruit and vegetables and all imported garlic products must be certified as safe and undergo fumigation before being allowed into the country.