Skipper sent to prison for 10 months for stealing boat

A SKIPPER has been jailed for 10 months for stealing a fishing boat belonging to Islay Crab Exports and fraudulently using one of the company’s credit cards.

But 37-year-old skipper Christopher Brown said during his trial at Campbeltown Sheriff Court that he had acted out of desperation. He said: ‘No person in this world works for seven weeks for nothing.’

Brown, whose address was given in court as HMP Edinburgh, had pleaded not guilty to nine charges, all on July 2, 2015. The main charges were stealing the fishing vessel, the catch and a company credit card.

The remaining six charges were of fraud with the credit card in Troon and in Silverburn shopping centre; buying tobacco and lighters from a Spar shop in Troon, to the value of £18; fuel, tobacco and energy drinks from Tesco, £105.79; clothes from JD Sports, £700.03; a mobile telephone, £529.99; attempting to buy iPads from Argos at £739.97 and also food to the value of £22.35 from McDonald’s, but the card was declined on these two occasions.

His not guilty plea to stealing the catch was accepted by the Crown and Sheriff Patrick Hughes found the theft of the credit card not proven. He found him guilty of all the other charges.

Sheriff Hughes heard that Brown has been hired by the Islay-based company through a find-a-fishing-boat website and Brown was to organise his own crew and board the scalloper Kayleigh M at Mallaig. The company’s advertisement said the boat was ready to go to sea.

Brown told the court: ‘No way. It was filthy. It took 12 hours a day, for three or four days to get it up to standard.’

James Monaghan, a director of Islay Crab Exports, said Brown was to receive a 30 per cent share of the price of the catch sold to the company, which had its own processing plant on Islay. ‘It is up to the skipper to decide how to pay the crew,’ he said, adding that each boat had access to a company credit card. Skippers were expected to send receipts to the office and, once established with the firm, were given a card of their own.

Mr Monaghan said Brown had taken a credit card from his pick-up truck.

Brown said in his evidence that he had been given the card by the company secretary and had been using it already for two weeks with the company’s consent.

Brown admitted he might have damaged a winch on board and with it some welding and there was water ingress into the living accommodation on board which had damaged property and clothing.

‘Whenever I tried to contact him [James Monaghan], his attitude was get on with it, fix it, I’m busy. It is all right, you will be reimbursed.’

Brown paid crew from his own funds and eventually the two men argued. He used the card to buy replacement clothes and possessions. He said: ‘I told him I was taking the boat to Troon, because I was done, I was finished.’

Mr Monaghan said this conversation did not take place. He told the court: ‘At 7am I was sent a text message that he was coming in at 11pm tonight. I arranged for a lorry to be there when they came in to land the catch but they didn’t come in. At about 9pm that night I thought something was seriously wrong.’

The company director said he believed Brown had done this to buy himself time to get to Troon and sell the catch.

Thomas Newton, of Coquet Island Shellfish, North Shields, said that Brown had approached him to buy the catch. Brown had wanted cash and the company never paid in this way; the money was paid to Islay Crab Exports.

When giving his verdict, Sheriff Hughes said that while some of the evidence he had heard for the prosecution had been contradictory, he was satisfied the offences occured.