A boat owner has been fined £10,000 for falsifying fishing records.

Michael John Laurence Henley admitted declaring that his vessel, Provider PL184, had been out fishing when it had not left port.

He pleaded guilty to five counts of falsifying a record or a return under the Fisheries Act 2012.

Prosecuting advocate Roger Kane said that, while the offences may not have resulted in a financial gain, there could be longer term benefits, such as certain rights being granted for boats with a proven fishing record.

Mr Kane told the court how 62-year-old Henley was the master and co-owner of Provider PL184 via the company Henley Shelfish Ltd.

A log submitted by Henley showed that the vessel had been fishing on October 12, 14, 19, 22, and 30 last year.

However, an investigation by the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture (DEFA) found that the boat had not left port and that Henley had been attributing catch from other vessels he owned to it.

CCTV footage confirmed that the boat had not left Peel harbour on the dates concerned.

Henley was interviewed by DEFA on March 10 and handed in a prepared statement admitting that on a number of occasions he had completed logs suggesting he had caught crabs with the boat when he had not done so.

Prosecutor Mr Kane said that, by not taking the boat out, Henley had also saved the cost of manning or fuelling it.

The court heard that Henley , who lives in Quarry Lane, Peel, has no previous convictions for fishing-related offences.

Defence advocate Peter Russell said that his client was going to sell the boat but could not do so until court proceedings were completed.

Mr Russell challenged the point that there had been any financial benefit to his client saying that ultimately the catch that was declared was caught by the Henley fleet and staff would have been paid to go out on those occasions.

The advocate said: ’The issue is the catch caught on certain occasions was not logged immediately. The catch is demand driven.

’Mr Henley will go fishing and catch X amount of crabs.

’The producer will say I only need Y amount, and the additional crabs are stored in pots.

’They all should be recorded as caught but weren’t until a week or so later, then sent on to the producer.

’There was very little financial gain.’

Mr Russell also said that he struggled to see that there would be much impact on the boat’s licence either.

The court heard that the maximum fine for each offence in summary court is £100,000.

High Bailiff Jayne Hughes said that this was an unusual offence as normally it would be a case of people trying to hide a catch above the permitted amount.

She referred to information which had been provided but not read out in court regarding Henley wanting to hide the fact that he was no longer capable of fishing from family and friends.

Mrs Hughes said that Henley had a long history in the fishing industry and had been ’instrumental’ in working with government to promote local fishing in the past.

He was also said to have been a founder of the Isle of Man Fishing Apprenticeship Scheme.

The Deputy High Bailiff fined Henley £2,000 for each of the five offences and ordered that he pay £8,000 of the fine on the day and the remainding £2,000 at a rate of £1,000 per month.

He must also pay £50 prosecution costs.