The Appeal Court has sentenced Ian Perkes, 53, of Berryhead Road, and his brother Sean Perkes, 44, to pay huge fine of £330,000 for illegally selling the fish. It is told that the due failed in their appeal against fines imposed for not submitting sales notes and landing declarations relating to purchases of fish. The official record says that all the offences took place between 2000 and 2005 and the original court case found the pair had breached laws designed to prevent over-fishing by not keeping adequate records of who they bought the fish from.
Commenting on the court’s verdict Ian Perkes claims the fines are ‘out of proportion’ to his crime. He also said that fishermen, buyers and even the Fisheries Minister at the time, Ben Bradshaw, did not know the law required them keep appropriate records. He informed that the charge was ‘failing to supply sales notes to DEFRA when purchasing fish direct from trawlers’. This law was apparently brought into force in 2000.
He told that many fish merchants including then Fisheries Minister Ben Bradshaw were unaware of this new regulation. He cites that if a family were out fishing for the afternoon and decided to sell their catch to their local fishmonger, and did not inform DEFRA, they would be committing the same offence as me.
A spokesman for Ben Bradshaw said he had no comment to make on matters involving his former ministry. A spokesman for DEFRA denied the law had been unclear, saying only minor changes had been made in 2005, which came into effect a year later.
