The latest ‘black scam’ fishers to fall prey to ''Operation Trawler'' are four skippers from Fraserbugh based Klondyke Fishing Company who have been fined £1m for taking part in an illegal mackerel and herring scam.
The quartet, all shareholders in the company, breached European Regulations to land tonnes of illegal fish between 2002 and 2005. These fines come in addition to the £720,000 demand served to them under Proceeds of Crime legislation last month.
The company Fresh Catch Ltd, also of Fraserburgh, has also been fined £160,000 for handling illegal fish during the same time period.
Operation Trawler is a seven year investigation launched to investigate suspicions about the widespread illegal landing of fish within the pelagic fleets. It has resulted in a string of sucessful prosecutions in Scotland so far.
Back in July, a total of 10 Scottish fishing skippers were ordered to pay nearly £1.2m after pleading guilty to the illegal landing of undeclared catches at two processors, Fresh Catch and Alexander Buchan between 2002 and 2005.
Earlier in the same month, Shetland Catch was hit with a whopping £1.5m confiscation order and fined £150,000 after the Lerwick company admitted assisting trawler skippers in making undeclared landings.
