Newlyn fish auctioneers W. Stevenson and Sons were ordered to pay a confiscation order and costs totalling £776,633 by a judge at Exeter Crown Court, UK on recently for a massive ''black'' fish scam.
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.
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 black fish 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.
