Boat owner who battled authorities for years fined

Dean Richards was given a three-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay £15,000

A judge has told a man who spent seven years battling marine authorities for the right to anchor his barge on a foreshore he owns in Cornwall he became "obsessed with a battle that has no purpose".

Dean Richards was given a three-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay £15,000 costs to the Marine Management Organisation at Truro Crown Court.

Earlier this month a jury found Richards guilty of being in breach of the Marine and Coastal Access Act for mooring his 86ft (26m) barge on his land on the river at Point quay, between Truro and Falmouth, without a licence.

Judge Simon Carr told Richards the financial penalty was "the most self-inflicted wound I've ever seen".

Substantial debts

The former bank manager, who is now a care worker, is also battling Cornwall Council over enforcement action it is taking against him.

The local authority said he needed planning permission to moor the former Royal Navy munitions barge in the riverside village - but Mr Richards argued he did not need it as he had a Certificate of Lawfulness, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Arevik Jackson, prosecuting on behalf of the MMO, asked for £21,000 in costs, which she said was a "conservative" amount.

Truro Crown Court heard the land owned by Richards on the foreshore at Point had been valued at £35,000 and the scrap value of the barge was £3,000.

Documents tendered to the court showed Richards had substantial debts, including credit card debts and costs from another unsuccessful case, which Judge Carr described as "self-inflicted".

'Utterly irrational'

The judge told Richards: "Your arguments in the vast amount of documentation this case has generated... show a quite extraordinary level of head in the sand over the reality of the situation.

"You're an intelligent man – you have known from the beginning you have absolutely no defence to this case.

"You could have changed the mooring style of the barge at any time and brought this to an end... it is utterly irrational."

He added "the desire to provide a home for yourself and your child on the moored barge on a human level one can understand".

Richards was ordered to pay £15,000 of the £21,000 sought by the MMO by 23 May 2025.