Fishing company director and captain fined for failing legal obligations

A fishing company director has been fined €4,000 for allowing one of the company's vessels to sail under the command of an unauthorised captain, who himself was fined €3,000

A fishing company director has been fined €4,000 for allowing one of the company's vessels to sail under the command of an unauthorised captain.

Global Fish Ltd director Mark Camilleri was arraigned before magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras this afternoon, together with the vessel's Egyptian captain Samy Ibrahim Elhammar.

Inspector Jeffrey Scicluna explained that the Fisheries department had reported the trawler Dolorezita to the police because the absence of the vessel's registered name printed on the stern had been noted.

When the police looked into the matter and boarded the ship, four nautical miles off the coast, on the 5 August. Once on board, the officers had also found that Elhammar was not the registered captain. Upon its return to the port, the ship's dragnet was also found not to have been marked with the ship's number – an offence under the Enforcement of Sea Fishing Conventions Order.

Camilleri was charged with failing to comply with several legal obligations tied to the operating of fishing vessels under the Maltese flag.

Elhammar was also charged with offences relating to ship identification markings and with being in command of the Maltese-flagged fishing vessel without the necessary legal authorisation.

Lawyers Gianluca Caruana Curran and Stephen Tonna Lowell, appearing on behalf of the accused, entered a guilty plea after the prosecution withdrew its request for the confiscation of the vessel.

The prosecution confirmed that the men had no previous convictions.

The court, after taking the men's early guilty plea and unblemished criminal record into account, found the men guilty, fining Elhammar, €3,000 and Camilleri €4,000.