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Chezzy13
31-03-2007, 09:34 AM
Illegal fisherman fined $38,000

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A ******* man was fined more than $30,000 in court on Tuesday morning for selling fish without holding a commercial fishing licence. ******** of , 45, was detected by local Fisheries officers who were on patrol on May 8, 2006 fishing at ******** Beach.
After further investigation, it was found that he had been fishing commercially for quite some time without holding a licence and was also selling the fish.
"The subsequent investigations that followed revealed that Mr **** had been fishing commercially for quite some time without holding a commercial fishing licence - during that time, Mr **** had sold in excess of $14,500 worth of fish," **** compliance services manager *******said.
Mr **** had been selling the produce to registered fish processors in ******
He appeared in ***** Magistrates Court on Tuesday morning for not being the holder of a licence in respect of the fisheries, 38 counts of selling fish without a licence and illegal fishing.
The court imposed a penalty of $8000 for the offence of fishing commercially without a licence and an added penalty of five times the wholesale value of the fish up to a maximum of $30,000.
All up Mr **** was fined $38,000 plus $100 in court costs.
A number of items that were seized on the night he was detected by Fisheries ** were also forfeited by the court to the crown, including his vessel, fishing equipment and the fish that he had caught on that day.
Mr **** began selling the fish without a licence on July 1, 2005 and continued until he was caught in May last year.
Fish processors that purchase produce from an unlicenced commercial fisherman could also technically find themselves in legal trouble, according to Mr******
"The fish processor regulation requires that registered fish processors can only purchase fish from licenced commercial fisheries or other registered fish processors," he said.
Mr ***** said that Mr **** had been commercially fishing for quite some years.
"Technically yes, they (these businesses) could be in trouble but they were acting in good faith that he had a licence and wouldn't be selling without a licence.
"The main issue is that registered fish processors need to ensure they are purchasing fish from a commercial fisher."

Good to sea the fisheries are doing an excellent job out on our waters..I blotted the names out because wasnt sure of rules in putting names and places and things..WOW what a whopper fine :o that was, they certainly come down hard dont they, and good on them, stops all this illegal selling of fish.. You would think the businessess would ask the bloke to provide ID wouldn't you??? Might make people think twice, but then again, thers always more ::)

silver19
31-03-2007, 09:39 AM
Good gwad a real fine --- next they will be putting crims in jail -- what`s the world coming to
cheers john

mattooty
31-03-2007, 10:32 AM
and good on them, stops all this illegal selling of fish..

Sadly its barely the tip of the iceburg..(however you spell ti)
Its awesome to hear them crack down but in the broader perspective, theres still hundreds of small scale illegal commercial operations like this all the way along our coast.
But to giev credit to the fisheries, they watched the bloke and piled up the evidence and now they're laughing. Just need to keep it up, and hopefully we'll get rid of a few of them
Matt

blaze
31-03-2007, 10:39 AM
Can understand that people are happy about this, maybe rightly so. Not sticking up for this type of behavior but sometimes the facts aint always presented. One of my mates who is a small time pro fisherman, who payed his licence fees for 5 years whilst setting up his boat, went to great lenths to make sure he was all legal. Fished the first season for very little return, checked about 10 times during the first season with no problems, all deemed legal. Then part way into his second year it was found that one of his lecences was not quite in order. So documentation was taken and fisheries on the day said its not a problem its only a formality we will sort it out. Yep it was sorted out alright, even the judge was apolagetic because by appling min penalties he was still up for a $10000 fine for what basicly was an error by fisheries when granting the licence (was only the wording). So what I am saying is sometimes a honest commercial guy can all of a sudden become non commercial by a couple of words wrong in a document.
Hope that wasnty the case the the above guy and if he was a ammauter gone wrong justly deserved.
cheers
blaze

Chezzy13
31-03-2007, 11:39 AM
Yea, can see what your saying there Blaze, and totally agree, poor fella, sometimes when you do do the right thing you get bitten..They obviously found enough evidence to convict that other fella.

dogsbody
31-03-2007, 02:06 PM
It's good to see the fines are going in the right direction. Now a few more to come.

Dave.

Brumby
31-03-2007, 02:08 PM
Not sure I buy the bit about the processor acting in good faith - they as just as much to blame I reckon. A decent fine on that side would have everyone checking licences before buying, quick smart!

netfish
31-03-2007, 02:11 PM
Now if this guy was on government benefits at the time. ?????

Dory4.1
31-03-2007, 05:13 PM
Perhaps the tax Office should also take a look, my bet is that this "income" was undeclared.

Mrs Ronnie H
01-04-2007, 06:38 PM
Hi All
Also the fine for guy in CAboolture court ( SEE thread in NEWS)

$10,000 for 48 undersize mud crabs.

Go get 'em fisheries

Ronnie

Wear the fox hat
01-04-2007, 10:47 PM
Hopefully more of these people that are deliberately doing the wrong thing are caught & fined. Any wholesalers/outlets that on-sell illegal catches should have the book thrown at them, as they normally do know it is an illegal catch & will pay a cheaper price compared to what they would pay an operator with a licence.

WTFH

Brett1907
02-04-2007, 02:17 PM
Great to see he got a decent fine, though the wording by the judge seems comical to me. Five times the income of the catch up to a max of $30000??? He made $14500, 5 times that is $72500. If they are going to cop a fine just give them the fine, not one figure reduced to another. It's like jail sentences, 10 years with parole after 18 months.

But it is great to see fisheries actively doing something.

Brett

snasman
02-04-2007, 03:22 PM
We done to fisheries and the judge who sat this case ,Now if they only started handing out this kind and much bigger fines and penalties to the offshore illegals
(remember the last lot 5 buck fine and a free ride home >:( ) we might stand half a chance for there to be a few fish left for my kids, kids.

Blaze are you trying to tell us that a goverment department made a mistake ;D
Nahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!! :D