The owner/skipper of a fishing vessel, who pleaded guilty to not showing navigation lights, employing crew who’d not completed safety training and to using it while it was unregistered, has been sent to prison. At a hearing (10^th November) at Southampton Crown Court, the owner/skipper Michael Roy Stimson received a custodial sentence totalling four months. He was being sentenced having earlier pleaded guilty to three offences brought under Maritime safety legislation and two offences under food safety and hygiene regulations. The vessel was seen to be fishing in Southampton Waters – which is closed to fishing due to high e-coli levels – on at least two occasions in 2013 and 2014.

On the night of 20^th October 2013, the small fishing vessel Alicia was approached by a fisheries patrol vessel from the Southern Inshore Fisheries & Conservation Authority.  During the approach the Alicia turned off its navigation lights.  Eventually the Alicia was boarded by Fisheries Officers who noted there were three people on board which included Michael Roy Stimson, the owner and skipper. The fisheries officers noted that the decks were awash and their concerns about the safety of the vessel were passed to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA).  After reviewing the video provided by the Fisheries Officers the decision was made to detain the Alicia as dangerously unsafe. The notice was issued on the grounds that it had insufficient freeboard and stability to operate safely as a fishing vessel. Investigations by the MCA showed that the two crew men found on board had received no safety training.  They also showed the Alicia had not been correctly registered and was formally removed from the registry in February 2014.

To read more go to:

http://hmcoastguard.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/the-ownerskipper-of-fishing-vessel-who.html?m=1