Illegal Sunderland fishermen sentenced after online brags
- Published
Michael Hutchinson and Connor Bell posed for pictures with their illegally caught fish
Two men who boasted online about poaching fish in the River Wear have been given suspended prison sentences.
Connor Bell and Michael Hutchinson used unlicensed gill nets to catch salmon and sea trout over two years, the Environment Agency said.
The Sunderland pair admitted offences at South Tyneside Magistrates' Court.
Bell was sentenced to five months in jail and Hutchinson for two months, with both terms suspended for 18 months.
Each man was also ordered to complete 200 hours unpaid work and pay £1,000 costs and a £128 victim surcharge.
The men used an unlicensed gill net
Bell, 30, of Bexhill Road, admitted using the nets while Hutchinson, 39, of Cranberry Road, admitted handing the illegally caught fish.
The nets are designed to catch fish by their gills and are rarely licensed in rivers "due to their ability to catch large numbers of migratory fish in a short period of time, as well as their potential for catching and killing fish indiscriminately", according to the Environment Agency.
While sea trout and salmon are not rare in the Wear - it is known as one of the best sea trout fishing rivers in England, external and a managed trout fishery operates off the North East coast - byelaws apply on the number of sea trout that can be caught in nets. Catches are licenced and restricted to just a few weeks each year.
Salmon cannot legally be taken in nets in the North East at any time.
Matthew Treece, lawyer for the Environment Agency, said files on Bell's mobile phone and Hutchinson's social media pages had highlighted multiple weekends of illegal netting during the summers of 2020 and 2021, along with photographs of both men posing with catches of up to 14 fish at a time.
Images from Hutchinson's Facebook profile also showed a relative with the captured fish, along with comments from Hutchinson encouraging them to become a "fine young poacher".
David Shears, senior fisheries enforcement officer for the agency, said the level of the men's illegal activity "could have a serious impact on the sustainability of future stocks in the River Wear".
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