Pensioner Joan Turtle is among fishing boat owners, skippers and one auctioneer who have been ordered to pay about £200,000 in fines and costs after fiddling strict European Union fishing quotas.
Mrs Turtle has never set foot on a fishing boat but, as the registered owner of the Ben Loyal, she has become embroiled in the controversial fishing quota case and now has to pay thousands of pounds or face a prison sentence.
She said the fishermen involved in the deception were motivated by "need, not greed" and were being punished for not throwing edible fish back into the sea.
The judge sentencing the 14 condemned the "well-organised deception" whereby skippers at Newlyn, West Cornwall, recorded landed fish under other species to beat the quota system.
But those sentenced yesterday spoke out passionately and maintained their actions were morally correct when faced with the choice of either throwing dead fish back into the ocean or landing them as a different species.
At Truro Crown Court, Judge Philip Wassall brought an end to legal proceedings against the 14 which had gone on since 2002.
Judge Wassall said: "It's become absolutely clear that all the offences were part of a series of well-organised deceptions to disguise the species landed by falsifying paperwork."
The packed courtroom was told that the boats landed high-value quota species of fish such as cod, hake and anglerfish but then mis-described them on documents supplied to Defra as non-quota species like ling, turbot and bass.
The judge said: "The scale and manner of the offending draws me to the clear conclusion that these offences were the result of a conspiracy.
"I'm sure these offences could not have been committed without the active connivance of at least one employee and the masters of the vessels concerned."
The judge said he did not accept points made regarding discarded fish and added: "A wholesale and systematic series of deceptions cannot be justified on such grounds."
The sentences have left one couple, Barney and Cynthia Thomas, from St Ives, having to pay out more than £50,000 in fines and costs or face a jail sentence.
The owners and skippers had been convicted after two earlier court hearings in 2006 and 2007 of a total of 114 specimen charges of failing to submit landing declarations that accurately indicated the quantities of each species landed.
All of the charges related to fish sold through W Stevenson and Sons auctioneers in Newlyn.
W Stevenson and Sons was also convicted of failing to supply accurate sales notes of the fish and is subject to confiscation proceedings which are ongoing.
After the hearing, Mrs Turtle said she and her husband Donald were registered owners of the Ben Loyal as they had agreed to put their house up as security against the boat skippered by their son John.
The boat has since been sold.
Mrs Turtle handed a letter to the WMN which said: "I cannot believe I have ended up in court as a criminal when all I have done all my life is try to support my husband and family.
"Can you imagine throwing one-third of your wages in the dustbin. It was need, not greed.
"The gut feeling of having to throw dead, healthy fish over the side when you could not avoid catching it – I can't imagine how it was."
The letter added: "This case has ruined my health and ensured a very unhappy retirement so far.
"It's certainly an unfair world and does not encourage ordinary hardworking families."
John Turtle, who will now have to pay up more than £15,000, said: "This will cause devastation for Newlyn – I can't see there will be a future for fishing in the town. The quota system will never be able to control the fishing in a mixed fishery."
Drew Davies, 40, owner and skipper of the CKS, faces fines and costs of more than £13,000 and said he would have to fish harder to earn the cash.
"Newlyn is on its knees. This is the final nail in the coffin. I've been going to sea since I was 15 – the only thing I wanted to do was own my own boat but now I have no interest in going to sea.
"If I had thrown those fish back, they would have gone to the seagulls. The quota system in general is a joke.
"The Government just takes and takes and gives nothing back."
A senior Marine and Fisheries Agency spokesman said: "This was an environmental and financial crime. Quota was available for these species of fish throughout the investigation period.
"This 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.
"The investigation by fishery officers was detailed and painstaking due to the well-organised nature of this deception.
"The defendants denied their offending to the last moment which led to protracted legal proceedings."
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