When the Marine and Fisheries Agency (MFA) caught the last three Thames Estuary fishermen with boats just over 10
metres long committing comparatively minor offences against the regulations, it invoked a law designed to confiscate
the assets of drug dealers and other serious criminals to punish the men so severely that they stand to lose all they
possess.
Because the agency, ignoring its own rules, had denied them a quota sufficient to earn a modest living, Victor Good, 68, of Harwich, Trevor Mole, 56, of West Mersea and Steve Barnes, 48, of Whitstable, had landed 19 tons of sole for which they had no EU quota.
When they were caught by a year-long agency "entrapment" operation, Judge Neil McKittrick not only imposed crippling fines totalling £42,500, with costs of £27,646, but also agreed to confiscations of their assets under the Proceeds of Crime Act, to a total of £213,461. Unless this is paid within months they face two years in prison.
In 2006 alone, 346 tons of the relevant sole quota remained unused. Under the "rules for the management of UK fisheries quotas", any quota unlikely to be caught should be reallocated to "those groups most likely to make use of it".
But the authorities refused to follow these rules, so the three men landed sole illegally, and sold it to a fish
merchant called Kamil Kolancali.
Read more here
www.telegraph.co.uk
In contrast...at Ipswich crown court, in July 2008, the same judge.."gave a paedophile 14 weeks suspended sentence
for the 'revolting crime' because he was a man of good character".
For illegal? fishing fined £283,607.
For being a paedophile 14 weeks suspended sentence.
See also "How Defra Crushed British Fishermen"