Trial of fishing company accused of under-reporting catch comes to an end

RESOLUTION: A resolution has been reached after Hawke's Bay Seafoods and several linked companies stood trial on charges laid by the Ministry for Primary Industries this year. PHOTO/FILE.

Directors of Hawke's Bay's biggest fishing company face the possibility of huge fines and even banishment from the industry after a trial which lasted seven months in Wellington's District Court.

Initially scheduled for four months, the judge-alone trial of Napier-based Hawke's Bay Seafoods, associated companies Ocean Enterprises and Esplanade No 3, brothers and directors Nino and Joe D'Esposito, manager Marc D'Esposito and four boat skippers started on May 18 and finished last week, with pleas of guilty to some of the 355 charges.

In an unusual scenario, a tentative date has been set for next month to confirm the charges on which sentencing will be carried out by trial judge Bill Hastings.

Sentencing is expected to involve more than 90 of the charges which generally alleged breaches of fishing regulations involving falsifying catch returns, stemming from an inquiry which led to a multi-agencies search of Hawke's Bay Seafoods' head office at the corner of Pandora Rd and West Quay, Napier, in September 2014.

At the start of the trial MPI prosecutor Stephanie Bishop told the court there had been deliberate and wide-reaching under-reporting of catches throughout a two-year period.

The charges related to what MPI said were 32 fish exporting events.

An investigation into the matter came to a head when the company's premises was searched by MPI, Police, Immigration and Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment staff.

Hundreds of charges were laid under the Fisheries Act and restraining orders on eight properties, five vehicles and more than $24,000 under the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act were made.

Ms Bishop alleged offences were orchestrated "from the top" and the necessary skippers' collusion was gained by cash payments and continued employment.

Catches totalling up to 63 tonnes of bluenose and 3.5 tonnes of trumpeter were involved, motivated by a lack of catch entitlement and prospects of export market advantages.

Charges involve mainly two types of offence, with false statements on catch-return records and selling fish not properly reported to MPI.

She said evidence of offending emerged when the MPI discovered a discrepancy between details of fish quantity landed and amounts being exported.

It was claimed Nino D'Esposito contacted skippers at sea and told them what catch estimates should be recorded.