Penalties totalling $367,709 have been imposed on a foreign fishing company and two of its crew after they admitted "trucking" - taking fish from one quota area and misreporting that it had come from the neighbouring zone.
The company also forfeited the misreported catch, which was later sold and the Crown has kept 63 percent of the proceeds, a total of $394,529.
The Ukrainian state-owned company, Fishing Co, is now asking for some of that money back but the Crown is saying it should get none of it. Christchurch District Court Judge David Saunders reserved his decision on that aspect of the sentencing today, and will issue his findings in writing next week.
The ship involved is the $9.3 million trawler Kapitan Rusak which is tied up at Christchurch's Port of Lyttelton. It was also forfeited to the Crown but the judge heard the owners' petition for relief today and ordered that it could be returned when they pay a redemption fee totalling $287,709.
That figure is a fee of $250,000 plus $37,709 to the cover the Ministry of Fisheries' costs of investigation.
The ministry did not prosecute the company itself, but laid three charges against the captain, Ruslan Karnaukhov, and the factory manager, Borys Samysko, who are both Ukrainian.
The captain has lost his job as a result of the prosecution and Samysko - a married man with children - will have to pay about 70 percent of his year's income in the fines imposed today. He will continue to work in the New Zealand fishery.
Judge Saunders fined the captain $50,000 and the factory manager $30,000.
The men had admitted misreporting the catches of ling, in areas southwest of the South Island in voyages in 2007 and 2008. A total of 247 tonnes of fish had been misreported.
The fishing enterprise was carried out by the Ukrainian company, as well as the Cyprus-based company Rain Proof Holdings.
Defence counsel Bruce Scott said the Ukrainian company had a long and proud history in New Zealand where it had been fishing since 1992. In that time there had been no difficulties, and no convictions of the company or its staff.
"It is not some fly-by-night operator," said Mr Scott. "It is a long term player and it regrets sincerely what has happened on this occasion."
He suggested that the company should be returned 50 percent of the proceeds from the sale of the misreported catch.
For the ministry, crown prosecutor Marty Robinson asked the judge to recognise the company's lack of oversight. The vessel's activities had showed a suspicious pattern that was strongly indicative of "trucking".
He said the offending had been premeditated and highly calculated and the taking of nearly 250 tonnes that were misreported must have "a localised depletion effect" on fish stocks.
