 Men Guilty to Fishery Offences
Two Eastern European men have admitted a string of offences in what KLAA see as a test case on whether coarse fish can be removed in numbers for food from Britain's rivers. Gunars Kaspers and Oleg Stepin were arrested when police and Environment Agency bailiffs swooped on a remote stretch of Norfolk's River Wissey, this followed a passing boater raising the alarm after reading the recent articles and notices from KLAA on illegal fish stealing. The group of men were seen using boats to set gill nets across the river during the close season last May. When approached by police the men were found barbecuing pike and bream on the bank at Roxham Fen, near Hilgay, while live tench were being kept in the river on a line threaded through their gills. Two unlicensed boats and nylon gill nets were also confiscated. The men Kaspers, 39, and Stepin, 43, whose addresses were given as in the Aberdeen area of Scotland, have now entered guilty pleas to stealing fish, fishing during the close season, fishing with an unlicensed instrument and the use of an unregistered vessel. 
Another man arrested at the scene has failed to answer bail, while a 35-year-old man has been told no further action will be taken. You have to question if there was evidence that these people were involved more than just a few pleasure trips with friends, given they has 50 metre gill nets and traveled the length of the country a so called "pleasure" trip. 
KLAA will continue to press for increased vigilance and action from the law enforcement agencies as the fines imposed in this case clearly don't reflect the serious implications on local angling.
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