Fisheries enforcement officers clamp down on illegal angling to protect and sustain fish stocks. Illegal fishing cost London and Kent anglers £539.
A London angler and another from Kent have been found guilty of fishing illegally on separate occasions last year. Their cases were brought by the Environment Agency to Hastings magistrates’ court on Thursday 27 April.
Alfie Furminger, 25, from Davidson Gardens, in Vauxhall, was proved guilty in his absence at court to fishing without a licence and a further offence of leaving his fishing rods unattended at Monks Lakes, at Maidstone, in Kent, on 27 November 2022. He was ordered to pay a total of £443. The amount includes a fine of £220, costs of £135 and a victim surcharge of £88.
In a separate case, Anthony Meakins, 24, from Otford Road, Sevenoaks, in Kent, pleaded guilty to fishing without a licence at Wilderness Lake at East Grinstead, in West Sussex, on 10 September 2022. He was ordered to pay £96, including a fine of £40, costs of £40, and a victim surcharge of £16.
Dave Webb, an area fisheries manager at the Environment Agency, said:
We hope the penalties the illegal anglers have received will act as a deterrent to anyone who is thinking of breaking the laws and byelaws we have in place across England.
Fishing illegally can incur a fine of up to £2,500 and offenders can also have their fishing equipment seized. We inspect rod licences 24/7, 7 days a week to check on cases of illegal fishing, and for those caught cheating the system, we will always prosecute.
Illegal fishing undermines the Environment Agency’s efforts to protect fish stocks and make fishing sustainable. Money raised from fishing licence sales is used to protect and improve fish stocks and fisheries for the benefit of legal anglers.
Any angler aged 13 or over, fishing on a river, canal or still water needs a licence to fish. A 1-day licence costs from just £6.60, and an annual licence currently costs from just £33, with concessions available. Junior licences are free for 13-16-year-olds.
Licences are available from www.gov.uk/get-a-fishing-licence or by calling the Environment Agency on 0344 800 5386 between 8am and 6pm, Monday to Friday.
The Environment Agency carries out enforcement work all year round and is supported by partners including the police and the Angling Trust. Fisheries enforcement work is intelligence-led, targeting known hot-spots and where illegal fishing is reported.
Anyone with information about illegal fishing activities can contact the Environment Agency incident hotline 24/7 on 0800 807060 or anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Photo by Walter Baxter, Wikimedia commons.