{"id":97508,"date":"2018-11-13T16:43:47","date_gmt":"2018-11-13T16:43:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=f290feb2c7fda48e884494bfd735078f"},"modified":"2018-11-13T16:43:47","modified_gmt":"2018-11-13T16:43:47","slug":"news-story-fishing-without-a-licence-costs-owner-master-and-fishing-company-over-75000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=97508","title":{"rendered":"News story: Fishing without a licence costs owner, master and fishing company over \u00a375,000"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The master of a fishing vessel, a director of the company that owns the vessel and the company itself were sentenced at North Shields Magistrates Court on Friday 9 November in a case brought by the Marine Management Organisation (MMO).<\/p>\n

E&J Shellfish Limited, which owned the vessel Catatonia, company director Ewan Inglis and master of the vessel Chris Ferguson were ordered to pay a total of over \u00a375,000 by North Shields Magistrates\u2019 Court.<\/p>\n

The court heard how sales notes showed that between January and September 2017 the Catatonia made 31 fishing trips when the vessel did not have a valid licence from the MMO for commercial fishing.<\/p>\n

The MMO provided advice to E&J Shellfish Limited on completing the necessary paperwork prior to and after the transfer of the vessel to their ownership in January 2017. 18 of the fishing trips made without a licence were after the MMO had sent a letter to the vessel owners making it clear that it was unlicensed and that using it to undertake commercial fishing would be an offence.<\/p>\n

As a result of the trips 18,458kg of razor clams were landed with a total value of \u00a3103,979.50.<\/p>\n

The offences arose under sections 4 and 12 of the Sea Fish Conservation Act 1967 (\u201cthe Act\u201d) and Regulation 3 Sea Fish Licensing (England) Order 2015. The Act provides for directors of companies to also be found liable for offences.<\/p>\n

E&J Shellfish Limited, Ewan Inglis and Chris Ferguson all pleaded guilty in court.<\/p>\n

E&J Shellfish Limited was ordered to pay a total of \u00a365,010 \u2013 a fine of \u00a312,000 plus a further \u00a350,000 in respect of the value of the fish, plus a victim surcharge of \u00a3170 and costs of \u00a32,840.00. Ewan Inglis was fined \u00a39,850 plus a victim surcharge of \u00a3170 and Chris Ferguson was fined \u00a3383 and order to pay a victim surcharge of \u00a338.<\/p>\n

The vessel later became licensed in November 2017 after the owners completed the relevant paperwork and took the necessary steps for a fishing vessel licence to be issued.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Marine Management Organisation said:<\/p>\n

\u201cCommercial fishing by English fishing vessels, wherever they may be, is only permitted under the authority of a licence issued by the Marine Management Organisation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe outcome of this enforcement action shows that the MMO can detect non-compliance with legal requirements by carrying out cross-checks of information such as sales notes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re pleased the Magistrates recognised that undermining the regulatory regime is a serious matter.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

E&J Shellfish Limited, one of its directors and master of its fishing vessel Catatonia were sentenced for fisheries offences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97508"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=97508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97508\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=97508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=97508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=97508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}