Brixham fish merchants fined £330,000 were 'unaware of the crime'
Ian Perkes, 53, of Berryhead Road, and his brother Sean Perkes, 44, have been told to pay £330,000 in confiscation orders following a criminal investigation which ended up at the Appeal Court on Friday.
The pair failed in their appeal against fines imposed for not submitting sales notes and landing declarations relating to purchases of fish.
All the offences took place between 2000 and 2005 and the original court case found the pair had breached laws designed to prevent over-fishing by not keeping adequate records of who they bought the fish from.
But Ian Perkes claims the fines are 'out of proportion' to his crime.
He also says fishermen, buyers and even the Fisheries Minister at the time, Ben Bradshaw, did not know the law required them keep appropriate records.
He said: "The charge was 'failing to supply sales notes to DEFRA when purchasing fish direct from trawlers'. This law was apparently brought into force in 2000.
"Ourselves and many others including then Fisheries Minister Ben Bradshaw were unaware of this new regulation. In fact, to confirm this Mr Bradshaw issued a memorandum in January 2005 stating as from this date it will be an offence for any person to buy directly from trawlers, or land their fish without informing DEFRA.
"If a family were out fishing for the afternoon and decided to sell their catch to their local fishmonger, and did not inform DEFRA, they would be committing the same offence as me.
"So if our Fisheries Minister was unaware this law was put into place five years prior to his statement, how on earth were we supposed to know about it?
"In court, we provided written statements from many other fish companies stating they too were unaware of this legislation."
On Friday, the Appeal Court found the judge in the original criminal case in 2008 had not acted unfairly in ordering the confiscation orders: £188,195 against Ian Perkes and £150,000 against Sean Perkes.
Both brothers had previously admitted five counts of failing to submit sales notes and landing declarations relating to purchases of fish they had made.
Mr Parkes claimed DEFRA had used 'a sledgehammer to crack a nut'.
"From day one we have been fully co-operative with all concerned, all the transactions were recorded and the tax paid, had we been dishonest and not done this DEFRA would not have had any evidence to take this case to court."
A spokesman for Ben Bradshaw said he had no comment to make on matters involving his former ministry.
A spokesman for DEFRA denied the law had been unclear, saying only minor changes had been made in 2005, which came into effect a year later.
He said: "The marine and Fisheries Agency clearly communicates its regulations and laws that the fishing industry needs to abide by.
"There has always been a requirement for merchants to submit sales notices to fish landed from large trawlers and since 2006 from smaller trawlers."
