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£1.6 million fine for Anglo-Spanish fisheries fraud at Swansea Crown Court
4th April 2003
Substantial fines and legal costs totalling £1.6 million, for large-scale fisheries fraud are to be paid by the owners of three Anglo-Spanish fishing trawlers working out of Milford Haven, Swansea Crown Court ruled.
Two separate cases involving UK registered fishing vessels `Whitesands` (Plymouth registered, but working out of Milford Haven) and `Grampian Avenger` and `Grampian Avenger 2` (Milford Haven registered) were brought by the Department for the Environment, Food & Rural Affairs () and have been heard over the course of this week.
Welcoming the court’s verdict ’s Milford-based District Inspector of Fisheries Martin Hearn said: "These hefty fines are in scale with the magnitude of this fisheries fraud. They are a clear deterrent to any fishermen tempted to try the same tricks.
"Overt dishonesty like this undermines the long-term future for all fishermen. The Government will resolutely pursue those that flout fisheries law."
The Whitesands case was undefended and both the trawler’s owners Plymouth Shipping Ltd and another company Santa Fe Ltd which leases the vessel did not appear in court.
The presiding judge Mr Christopher Morton found them guilty on 27 counts of fisheries fraud, notably, alteration of logbooks, not properly recording quota species catches in logbooks, and submission of incorrect landing declarations.
The charges against the Whitesands related to a series of fishing trips made in the period January 2000 to June 2002, in waters to the west and south-west of Ireland and to the west of Scotland (ICES areas VI and VII). In June 2002 Whitesands was intercepted by HMS Anglesey and detained to Milford Haven. There, fisheries inspectors found that subtle alterations had been made to the vessel’s logbook by its skippers. These alterations substantially downplayed the amount of hake the vessel had caught over 46 fishing trips, by approximately 508 tonnes.
The 11 charges against the Grampian Avenger and its sister ship Grampian Avenger 2, both owned by Milford-based company Ramosa Ltd, related to offences committed between January 2000 and April 2001, again in ICES areas VI and VII, again mostly hake.
The vessel’s logbook entries were initially completed in pencil. Where the vessel was not subject to inspection at sea, these pencil entries were erased and smaller quantities of fish superimposed in pen. This resulted in an under declaration of approximately 165 tonnes of hake.
Hake, a popular delicacy in Spain, is a seriously threatened stock currently subject, like cod, to EU recovery measures.
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