Bugged snapper cost $2800

By BRIDGET CARTER

An illegal fisherman collared by "bugged" snapper has been fined $980 and $1820 costs in the Kaikohe District Court.

Spencer Samuels was sentenced yesterday on 42 charges of fishing without a quota, using an unregistered vessel to take fish and taking fish without a permit.

Ministry of Fisheries officers had implanted electronic tracking devices in 103 landed snapper to monitor an illegal sales ring during 1999.

Mr Samuels had caught the fish in Whangaroa Harbour. They were taken to a Kawakawa fish'n'chip shop where they were filleted and sold.

Other ring-members sentenced yesterday were Samuels' wife Lorraine, Phillip Bristow and Ripeka Nathan.

Judge Thomas Everitt fined Samuels, the nephew of MP Dover Samuels, $70 and $130 costs on each of 14 charges of fishing without a quota, but convicted and discharged him for the other 28 charges because of his inability to pay.

Bristow, found guilty of seven charges of unlawful possession of fish for sale, was ordered to pay $1400, and Lorraine Samuels, convicted of 12 similar charges, was ordered to pay $1840.

Nathan, found guilty of one charge of unlawful possession of fish for sale, was convicted and discharged.

Judge Everitt said the maximum penalty for each of the charges that Spencer Samuels faced was $250,000, but the defendants were "small-time players".

"Mr and Mrs Samuels do not exhibit to be wealthy people, nor does Mr Bristow or Ms Nathan.

"Mr Samuels resides in a caravan. His main asset is the fishing vessel Camelot," he said.

"Mr and Mrs Samuels are family people ... ordinary working people who are trying to get by."

Spencer Samuels' operation was relatively unsophisticated and the number of fish illegally caught was small compared with trawler catches.

Judge Everitt said the illegal fish were given to family, and some were supplied to the fish shop.

Spencer Samuels said in court he believed he had a right under Maori law and the Treaty of Waitangi to catch the fish.

Crown lawyer Mike Smith said it was not an isolated incident.

"This was Samuels' job."

nzherald.co.nz/marine