Fish firm bosses ‘did not profit from illegal catches’

A COMPANY at the heart of the UK’s biggest “black fish” scam did not use its illegal income to line the pockets of directors or shareholders, a judge was told yesterday.

Prosecutors claim that helping quota-dodging fishing boat skippers to land mackerel and herring, which they did not declare to the authorities, earned Lerwick-based Shetland Catch Ltd more than £6 million.

Using legislation more usually directed against drug barons, the Crown is demanding that the fish processing plant should hand over £6,157,000.

Shetland Catch, which also faces a heavy fine once a confiscation figure is agreed, is challenging the demand.

Judge Lord Turnbull has heard a week of evidence and legal argument at the High Court in Edinburgh and is expected to give his ruling on 14 June .

In a final plea yesterday, defence QC David Burns asked the judge to take into account the importance of Shetland Catch to the islands’ economy.

The plant, the biggest of its type in Scotland and one of the largest in Europe, was a major employer in Shetland, he said, and was already struggling to cope with substantial debts.

The state had already got back some of the illegally made profits, in the form of corporation tax, said Mr Burns.

“It is not the case that the profits were being used to line the pockets of directors or shareholders,” he said.