This hearing marked the end of a long-running prosecution resulting from a Marine and Fisheries Agency investigation into the activities of various fishing vessels operating out of Newlyn harbour in Cornwall.
W. Stevenson and Sons were ordered to pay a confiscation order of £710,220 – an amount by which it had benefitted from its criminal activities in 2002.
In addition the partnership was ordered to pay costs of £66,413.
His Honour Judge Philip Wassall gave the partnership a conditional discharge on 45 specimen charges. He said he was concerned that fines would have placed an additional financial burden on the partnership which would have had likely consequences for its employees and other industries in Newlyn.
The scam involved disguising the landings of valuable quota species like hake, sole, monkfish and cod by describing them as non quota fish such as turbot or ling.
The partnership provided an outlet for this “blackfish” through its Newlyn auction. It attempted to cover up what was going on by falsifying its own sales records to match the false declarations made by the masters of the vessels.
Judge Wassall had adjourned the case on May 18 after the MFA adjusted its calculations relating to the amount of black fish landed at Newlyn.
At an earlier hearing the partnership did not provide any evidence as to the actual scale of the illegal black fish.
The MFA fishery officer was cross-examined at length by defence counsel Philip Hackett QC. In the light of detailed issues raised during this cross examination the fishery officer re-examined the calculations he had originally made in order to avoid any risk of injustice to the partnership.
In 2004, the masters and owners of six Newlyn vessels were charged with failing to submit landing declarations which accurately indicated the quantities of fish landed during the period April to September 2002.
The partnership was charged with corresponding offences of failing to submit sales notes which accurately indicated the quantities and price of fish sold through their auction business. Julian Bick, an auctioneer employed by W. Stevenson and Sons, was charged with offences of aiding and abetting the partnership.
On 19 October 2006, the partnership was found guilty by a jury at Truro Crown Court of eight charges of falsifying fish sales notes, and in April 2007 it pleaded guilty to a further 37 similar charges. In October 2006 Julian Bick was found guilty of aiding and abetting the submission of false sales notes by his employer.
Mr Bick and the masters and owners were sentenced at Truro Crown Court on 6 January, 2009. They were ordered to pay a total of £189,891.59 in fines and costs for what the judge described as a conspiracy which had the partnership at its hub.
The MFA investigation revealed that large volumes of hake and other high value quota species were being systematically mis-recorded on landing declarations submitted to the authorities by various Newlyn vessels.
The offending would not have been discovered without the diligence of MFA officers who conducted a painstaking year-long investigation involving the detailed analysis of vast quantities of paperwork.
His Honour Judge Wassall, when passing sentence in January 2009, dismissed a suggestion from the defence that the “blacking” of fish was in order to avoid having to discard fish caught over quota.
The judge said, “A wholesale and systematic series of deceptions to such an extent cannot be justified on such grounds…the motive behind this offending was, I am sure, profit.”
The offending in this case allowed profits to be maximised because the quotas – or limits – for the valuable species that had gone through the system were effectively by-passed, which allowed more such fish to be landed illegally and sold illegally through the port.
A financial investigation was conducted by SOCA to calculate the financial benefit to W Stevensons and Sons resulting from its criminal conduct.
After the hearing the MFA Chief Executive, Nigel Gooding said: “We are pleased that this case is finally concluded.
“This was an environmental and financial crime. Quota was available for these species of fish throughout the investigation period.
“The deception was done for financial gain – not to avoid discarding fish. And these activities both endangered fish stocks and penalised legal fishermen by depressing prices.
“I want to congratulate the MFA’s fishery officers involved in this case. Their work was long, detailed and painstaking.”
Deputy Director of the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) said after the case: “These were serious criminal offences which the court decided were committed over a long period of time and which puts legitimate businesses at risk.
“If you try to profit from crime, SOCA and its partners will use all the powers available to take those profits away.”
