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NEWLYN fishing firm W Stevenson and Sons has been ordered to pay £710,000 after breaking quota laws.
A
judge at Exeter Crown Court yesterday decided the amount to be paid
after the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)
put in a confiscation order for £4 million, based on estimates of the
resulting illegal income.
The
business partners were also ordered to pay £66,000 costs and could have
been fined but were instead given a two-year conditional discharge.
W
Stevenson and Sons had admitted breaking EU quota laws by 'blacking'
fish – falsifying landing documents to allow them to sell it more
expensively – between April and September 2002.
The
firm, Britain's largest privately-owned fishing company, pleaded guilty
to 37 charges of submitting a false sales note to the Defra at Exeter
Crown Court in April.
Documents received by
Defra did not accurately show the amount of each fish species landed at
Newlyn harbour and when it was auctioned off.
The
complicated case began at Truro Crown Court where the owners and
skippers of six Newlyn fishing boats, together with an auctioneer, were
fined £115,000 and ordered to pay £86,887 in costs on January 6.
A
Sea Fisheries Agency officer told a subsequent hearing at Plymouth
Crown Court on May 18 that he had revisited the files and compiled new
data which could "significantly change" the situation.
The
case was then adjourned while legal teams assessed the impact of the
new information on the figures underpinning the £4 million confiscation
case. Yesterday's hearing ended as The Cornishman went to press.
article copyright THE CORNISHMAN
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