Fish quota offences cost £500,000

A boat owner has been ordered to pay almost £500,000 after his company admitted exceeding fishing quotas.

Dumfries and Galloway firm TN Trawlers admitted 26 offences, which broke European regulations controlling catches of specified species of fish. Owner Tom Nicholson, of Annan, was ordered to pay £472,000 under the Proceeds of Crime Act. He has six months to raise the cash or face a jail term. He was also fined £27,000 at Newcastle Crown Court. The case followed an 18-month investigation between January 2004 and July 2005 by the Marine and Fisheries Agency into the so-called "black fish" trade. Nicholson's fleet operates in the Solway Firth and the South of England including Padstow, Newlyn, Falmouth and Brixham. Last year, six of his skippers were fined in connection with the probe. Judge David Wood told Nicholson that a message had to be sent out to people in the fishing industry that breaking the rules would not be tolerated and would be met with large penalties. It is well known that fishing stocks around the UK and European countries are seriously depleted and some stocks are threatened with extinction.
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