Jersey Unreported Judgments

Inferior Number Sentencing - contravention of articles 9 and 23 of the Sea Fisheries (Jersey) Law 1994.

[2016]JRC056

Royal Court

(Samedi)

4 March 2016

Before     :

W. J. Bailhache, Esq., Bailiff, and Jurats Olsen and Ramsden

The Attorney General

-v-

Arnaud Delalonde

Tony Mesnage

Sentencing by the Inferior Number of the Royal Court, following guilty pleas to the following charges:

Arnaud Delalonde

6 counts of:	Fishing within the territorial sea of Jersey, contrary to Article 9(1) of the Sea Fisheries (Jersey) Law 1994 (Counts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6).
6 counts of:	Knowingly providing false information, contrary to Article 23(1) of the Sea Fisheries (Jersey) Law 1994 (Counts 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12).

Age: 

Plea: Guilty.

Details of Offence:

Delalonde was the master and owner of a french fishing boat that on six occasions dredged for scallops up to 1000 yards inside Jersey's exclusive three mile fishing limit.  Mesnage was employed as the master of a similar vessel that fished alongside Delalonde's boat on four of the occasions.  Delalonde caught approximately 12,000 Euros-worth of scallops in total (1000Kg of scallops on each trip), a large proportion of them within the three-mile limit.  Mesnage caught slightly less on each of his four trips.  They inadvertently dredged close to a protected marine conservation area containing vulnerable species.  Both men falsified their official catch declarations to state that they had been fishing elsewhere.

Details of Mitigation:

Cooperation, admissions, voluntary attendance.

Previous Convictions:

None.

Conclusions:

Count 1:	£3,000 fine.
Count 2:	£3,000 fine, consecutive.
Count 3:	£3,000 fine, consecutive.
Count 4:	£3,000 fine, consecutive.
Count 5:	£3,000 fine, consecutive.
Count 6:	£3,000 fine, consecutive.
Count 7:	£500 fine, concurrent.
Count 8:	£500 fine, concurrent.
Count 9:	£500 fine, concurrent.
Count 10:	£500 fine, concurrent.
Count 11:	£500 fine, concurrent.
Count 12:	£500 fine, concurrent.

Total:  £18,000 fine.

Contribution of £2,000 towards Prosecution costs sought.

Sentence and Observations of Court:

Fishing rules were in place to preserve marine habitats and stock for future generations; Jersey has a shared determination with France to ensure regulations are taken seriously.  The false declarations aggravate the offending and attract separate penalties. 

Count 1:	£2,500 fine.
Count 2:	£2,500 fine, consecutive.
Count 3:	£2,500 fine, consecutive.
Count 4:	£2,500 fine, consecutive.
Count 5:	£2,500 fine, consecutive.
Count 6:	£2,500 fine, consecutive.
Count 7:	£500 fine, consecutive.
Count 8:	£500 fine, consecutive.
Count 9:	£500 fine, consecutive.
Count 10:	£500 fine, consecutive.
Count 11:	£500 fine, consecutive.
Count 12:	£500 fine, consecutive.

Total: £18,000 fine to be paid within 12 months on a quarterly basis or a default sentence of 9 months imprisonment, concurrent on each count.

Contribution of £2,000 towards Prosecution costs ordered to be paid quarterly.

Tony Mesnage

4 counts of:	Fishing within the territorial sea of Jersey, contrary to Article 9(1) of the Sea Fisheries (Jersey) Law 1994 (Counts 13, 14, 15 and 16).
4 counts of:	Knowingly providing false information, contrary to Article 23(1) of the Sea Fisheries (Jersey) Law 1994 (Counts 17, 18, 19 and 20).

Age: 

Plea: Guilty.

Details of Offence:

See Delalonde above.

Details of Mitigation:

Cooperation; admissions and voluntary attendance.

Previous Convictions:

Fishing in a particular zone of the 3-12 mile territorial sea without the requisite permit, apparently explained by an official administrative error - fined £300 in the Magistrate's Court. 

Conclusions:

Count 13:	£2,000 fine.
Count 14:	£2,000 fine, consecutive.
Count 15:	£2,000 fine, consecutive.
Count 16:	£2,000 fine, consecutive.
Count 17:	£500 fine, concurrent.
Count 18:	£500 fine, concurrent.
Count 19:	£500 fine, concurrent.
Count 20:	£500 fine, concurrent.

Total: £8,000 fine.

Contribution of £2,000 towards Prosecution costs sought.

Sentence and Observations of Court:

Fishing rules were in place to preserve marine habitats and stock for future generations; Jersey has a shared determination with France to ensure regulations are taken seriously.  The false declarations aggravate the offending and attract separate penalties. 

Count 13:	£1,500 fine.
Count 14:	£1,500 fine, consecutive.
Count 15:	£1,500 fine, consecutive.
Count 16:	£1,500 fine, consecutive.
Count 17:	£500 fine, consecutive.
Count 18	£500 fine, consecutive.
Count 19:	£500 fine, consecutive.
Count 20:	£500 fine, consecutive.

Total £8,000 fine to be paid within 12 months on a quarterly basis or a default sentence of 9 months imprisonment, concurrent on each count.

Contribution of £2,000 towards Prosecution costs ordered to be paid quarterly.

D. J. Hopwood, Esq., Crown Advocate.

The Defendants appeared in person and on their own behalf.

Advocate P. S. Landick appeared as Amicus curiae.

JUDGMENT

THE BAILIFF:

1.        You are here to be sentenced for offences under the Sea Fisheries (Jersey) Law 1994 in that you dredged for scallops within Jersey's exclusive 3-mile limit and you are also to be sentenced for knowingly providing false information as to where you had been fishing, contrary to Sea Fisheries Regulations.  The fishing conservation rules are made to ensure that fishing stocks survive and are preserved for future generations.  In particular dredging for scallops, as the Crown says in its summary of facts, is destructive of marine habitats and there are real risks which arise when fishermen dredge in areas where they are not permitted to do so.  Just as happens in France the Courts here take offences very seriously.  We have a shared determination in Jersey and France to make sure that the regulations are properly applied. 

2.        In this case Monsieur Delalonde, you committed these offences six times, at least, over a 9-month period.  Monsieur Mesnage, you committed these offences four times over a 9-month period.  It is clear from the facts that you did so deliberately and knowingly.  A good example of that is in relation to Count 4 on the Indictment in relation to Monsieur Delalonde and the counterpart count for Monsieur Mesnage that on the 6^th and 7^th May you came into the 3-mile limit under cover of darkness and left that to start a new dredging pattern outside the 3-mile limit once it became light.  So when I put to you, Monsieur Delalonde, that you had committed these offences deliberately, knowingly, you rightly accepted that was true.  Although you did not express any remorse, you did not say you were sorry, when I asked you the question, we did receive your message when we were considering sentence and we accept that that was down to misunderstanding and that you did intend to say you were sorry for these offences which have been committed.  We give you credit for that. 

3.        The Crown has treated the offences of fraud as being the less serious offences in this case.  This Court wants to add that in our view offences of fraud are always serious and seriously aggravate the other offences.  Sometimes that might be dealt with as an aggravating factor and not charged separately.  On this occasion they have been charged separately.  We are not prepared to impose concurrent fines, if indeed it is possible in Law to do so which we doubt, because we think that a deliberate fraudulent false declaration needs to be reflected by its own sentence and so we have considered whether the total amount of fines should be increased.  However, we recognise that you knew in advance before coming to the Island what the Court would be asked to impose and although we have a discretion to go over the Crown's conclusions, we are not going to do so on this occasion only because you have come to Jersey on the basis of what you were expecting.  In that connection we give you some credit for your appearance here but we do wish to note that the Crown's position, which seems to us to make good sense on the face of it, is that there would be significant sanctions to a French fisherman who deliberately did not attend in the court in Jersey when charged with offences of this kind because that fisherman might lose his licence in the Bay of Granville.  So we give you some credit for the fact that you have come to us today but perhaps not as much as has been reflected by the Court on previous occasions. 

4.        In the circumstances we are going to fine you the total sums which are suggested by the Crown but we are going to break down the fines slightly differently. 

5.        Monsieur Delalonde, on Count 1 you are fined £2,500 and on Count 7 you are fined £500.  Similarly Monsieur Mesnage, on Count 13 you are fined £1,500 and on Count 17 you are fined £500.  These are not concurrent fines so the total respectively is £3,000 and £2,000 for those brackets of offences.  For the remainder of the offences Count 2; £2,500, Count 8; £500.  Monsieur Delalonde that is you only.  Monsieur Delalonde, Count 3; £2,500, Count 9; £500.  Monsieur Mesnage, Count 14; £1,500, Count 18; £500.  Monsieur Delalonde, Count 4; £2,500, Count 10; £500.  Monsieur Mesnage, Count 15; £1,500, Count 19; £500.  Monsieur Delalonde, Count 5; £2,500, Count 11; £500.  Monsieur Mesnage, Count 16; £1,500, Count 20; £500.  Monsieur Delalonde, Count 6; £2,500, Count 12; £500.  As I say none of those fines are concurrent.  The total sum therefore, Monsieur Delalonde, is £18,000.  And the total sum, Monsieur Mesnage, is £8,000.  You are given 12 months within which you can pay those fines.  We impose a default sentence of imprisonment of 9 months.  That is to say if you do not make the payments when they are due you are liable to serve 9 months' imprisonment.  That default sentence applies to every fine on the Indictment and the default sentences would be served concurrently, making a total of 9 months.  When we say that you have 12 months to pay with four instalments; that means that every quarter, every three months, you must make a payment of one quarter of the total amount. 

6.        In addition you are each to pay £2,000 towards the prosecution costs.  And again, those should be paid quarterly, so £500 every three months. 

Authorities

Sea Fisheries (Jersey) Law 1994.

Sea Fisheries (Log Books and Landing Declarations)(Jersey) Regulations 2007.

Sea Fisheries (Log Books, Transhipment and Landing Declarations) (Jersey) Regulations 2014.

AG v Biard 1998/169.

AG v Groult 1998/42.

AG v Grandmougin & Ferrantim 2002/81.

AG v Lefilleul & Barbelenet [2006] JRC 148.

AG v Michieli & Clark [2010] JRC 217B.