Trader smuggled £53m haul of endangered eels to China

A SEAFOOD salesman who smuggled endangered live eels worth more than £53 million has been spared jail because of his age and ill health.

Gilbert Khoo, 67, had his two-year jail term suspended for two years at London’s Southwark Crown Court.

He transported the rare elvers from London to Hong Kong, hidden underneath chilled fish, between 2015 and 2017, the court was told.

Khoo was caught after Border Force officers found 200kg of the European “glass eels”, which are on the verge of extinction, at Heathrow airport, in the first seizure of its kind in the UK.

The prosecution said the crimes involved 16 consignments with an estimated retail value of £53,265,000 in the illegal market for them in Asia, where they are a delicacy.

Khoo, of Chessington, Surrey, kept the live eels, imported from European Union countries, in a barn in Gloucestershire before repackaging them to be exported.

He was sentenced to 24 months imprisonment, suspended for two years, on each of three counts of evasion of a prohibition on the export of goods.

Judge Jeffrey Pegden QC, who also ordered Khoo to do 240 hours of unpaid work, said: “In my view, you played a leading role in this country in what was a large commercial operation driven by others, purchasers abroad, where the desire for the glass eels was abundant.”

The judge said he had “no doubt at all” that Khoo’s criminal operation had “a significant environmental impact upon the European glass eel”, which has a 30-year life cycle.

The judge was given notes and reports about Khoo’s age, health, and low risk of committing more crimes.

Martin Hicks, in mitigation for Khoo, also said his client was considered a “vulnerable person” because of his health problems in the face of the coronavirus outbreak.

Judge Pegden told Khoo: “Because of your age and recent health difficulties the inevitable two years’ custody can be suspended for a period of two years.”

Khoo was also found guilty of three counts of failure to notify movement of animals.

A proceeds of crime hearing will take place at a later date.