Skippers fined £3m over 'black fish' landings

Fishing: Skippers secretly landed fish and delivered it to Shetland.© STV

Fishing boat skippers who lied about the size of their catches have been ordered to hand over almost £3m.

A judge has made confiscation orders against 17 fishers who landed so-called "black fish" at Shetland ports to get around stringent limits laid down by Europe.

Under proceeds of crime legislation they were told to pay back amounts, ranging from £2,700 to £425,900, adding to a total of nearly £3m.

The prosecutions were brought after a major investigation which uncovered the "black fish" racket in Shetland, between January 2002 and March 2005.

The offences were committed by pelagic fishing boats which brought in mackerel over the winter months and herring in July and August.

Fish processing company Shetland Catch, the biggest of its kind in Scotland, had admitted helping skippers to give false information. The question of confiscation is still to be made over the company.

The fishing vessels landed their catches at Gremista at Lerwick where Shetland Catch can process 1000 tonnes of fish a day.

The European Union declares how much fish can be taken and shares out the total among member states.

Fishermen and their agents have to submit log books, sales notes and landing declarations for scrutiny by the Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency - now Marine Scotland - who are responsible for enforcing quotas.

Meanwhile, Alexander Buchan Limited, which formerly operated a fish processing factory in Peterhead, pled guilty to assisting vessel skippers in making false declarations of fish which had been landed at their factory premises between 2003 and 2005 and have bene ordered to repay £165,000 made from the sale of illegally landed fish.

Solicitor general Lesley, Thomson QC, said: "In committing these offences all of the accused put their own financial gain first. Make no mistake these individuals were involved in significant organised criminality."

Detective superintendent Gordon Gibson said: "These have been an extremely complex and lengthy investigations which have required many many months of meticulously detailed work by the officers concerned.

"As can be seen from the pleas tendered today, this was criminality at an extremely high level and it reflects most favourably on the dedication of all the staff involved in these investigations."

The skippers, their vessels and the amount they have to pay back:

Hamish Slater, 52, Enterprise - £425,900

Robert Polson, 48, Serene - £371,300

Victor Buschini, 41, Enterprise - £341,000

Alexander Masson, 65, Kings Cross - £283,000

John Irvine, 68, Zephyr - £236,000

William Williamson, 64, Research W - £213,000

Laurence Irvine, 66, Antares – £210,700

Alexander Wiseman, 50, Kings Cross – £196,000

David Hutchison, 66, Charisma – £140,900

Thomas Eunson, 56, Serene – £140,500

Allister Irvine, 63, Zephyr - £120,600

Gary Williamson, 52, Research W - £118,500

George Henry, 60, Adenia – £51,300

John Stewart, 56, Antarctic – £41,300

George Anderson, 55, Adenia – £40,700

Colin Leask, 38, Antarctic II – £12,000

Allen Anderson, 55, Serene – £2,700

IN DETAIL