On 19 March 2024, at Truro Magistrates Court, Cornwall IFCA successfully prosecuted Carl Snell (39) of Torquay Devon, the skipper of the fishing vessel Alicja Rose BF71, for a string of offences relating to the vessel’s scallop dredging activities. This follows on from the court prosecutions against the vessel’s owner Radiant FR10 Ltd, who were tried on the 23 August 2023. Representatives of the owners attended court on this first hearing date, but Mr Snell failed to attend, leading to a warrant being issued for his arrest. The charges faced by the owner and master were six counts of using a vessel for fishing for shellfish exceeding 16.46m overall length within the Cornwall IFCA District, six counts of using dredges to remove scallops at a prohibited time of day, four counts of failing to maintain the Automatic Identification System (AIS) and two counts of failing to keep a fishing logbook of operations and send it to the competent authority. These offences occurred on multiple days over six fishing trips carried out between 4 December 2022 and 20 January 2023.
The owner pleaded guilty to all charges and sentencing was adjourned to 13 December 2023, when it was expected Mr Snell would appear. Radiant FR10 Ltd was sentenced by Truro Magistrates on the 13 December and handed a total fine of £10,400 together with a £4,160 surcharge and costs of £4,645. Unfortunately, again Mr Snell did not appear before the court.
In January 2024 Mr Snell was arrested and attended Exeter Magistrates Court where he was bailed to attend Truro Magistrates court on 24 January 2024. Mr Snell, once again, failed to attend court which led to a no-bail arrest warrant being issued by the court.
On the 19 March 2024 Mr Snell was arrested, held overnight, and the following day transported to Truro Magistrates Court where he pleaded guilty to all the charges and was sentenced to a total fine of £10,200 together with a surcharge of £4,080 and costs of £1,716 to be paid at £1000 per month. The court also stipulated that defaulting on payment would result in 12 months imprisonment.
Scallops are an important target species for many fishermen working within the Cornwall IFCA district and there are many local and national regulations for their conservation. Within the Cornwall IFCA district there is a vessel size limit, gear construction and quantity limits and a curfew fishing hours system in place to prevent stocks from being over exploited. In addition, there is national regulation to ensure that vessels over a certain size must carry and maintain an AIS system that, in real time, identifies the vessel and transmits data about its location, direction of travel and speed. This is an essential tool which assists regulating bodies to remotely check the locations of vessels and assist with various enforcement matters, including the accuracy of logbook submissions which, for one entire fishing trip by the Alicja Rose, were not submitted at all.
Simon Cadman, Cornwall IFCA’s Principal Enforcement Officer said, “It was disappointing to again find Carl Snell being at the centre of another serious investigation by Cornwall IFCA. The eighteen charges brought against him on this occasion demonstrated his propensity to disregard important rules designed to maintain a sustainable scallop fishing industry. Whilst his non-attendance at various court hearings was frustrating, this was never going to result in anything positive for Mr Snell in terms of the eventual court proceedings. I am grateful to the owner of the Alicja Rose for having quickly pleaded guilty for all the offences charged, allowing them to be dealt with by the court several months ago. I hope this case shows that Cornwall IFCA will not give up on its pursuit of prosecuting serious cases of illegal fishing and highlights that suspects should not ignore a court summons. The sentences totalling over £35k handed down to the master and owner reflect the seriousness of the offending and will hopefully deter others from similar behaviour."