We’ll put up £125k bail to get trawler crew home, owner vows
THE boss of the Scottish trawler seized by France says he is willing to pay to get his crew home as soon as possible.
Jondy Ward, captain of the Cornelis Gert Jan, is due in court tomorrow after being forced into port over a licence dispute last week.
Bail of £125,000 was set by a French court to ensure he returns to face trial next year but the crew remain in legal limbo.
His boss Andrew Brown, of owner Macduff Shellfish, said last night: ‘Our priority is to get the crew released and bring them home. If the court imposes a bond then we will discuss the size of the bond.
‘And depending on the size of the bond, it may take a couple of days to raise the money and for the boat to be released.’
Scallop fisherman Mr Ward was named for the first time last night as new details emerged of the legal wrangling that has kept him and his seven-man crew stranded in dock in Le Havre. The father of two, from Burtonport, County Donegal, was arrested last week off the Normandy coast by the French Maritime Gendarmerie. Mr
Ward was charged with ‘acts of unauthorised sea fishing in French maritime salt waters’ and ordered to appear in court next August.
But yesterday it emerged that his French lawyer appealed to the Juge des
Libertes – a kind of human rights judge – who, at a special sitting in Rouen on Saturday, ruled against the French authorities.
However, the Prefecture Maritime is appealing against the findings of the Juge des Libertes. Sources yesterday said Mr Ward will now return to the court in Rouen tomorrow. But when the boat will finally be able to leave remained unclear.
In 2014 Mr Ward said he had been attacked by a stone-throwing mob of French trawlermen who tried to stop him and his crew operating in French territorial waters.
‘It’s our priority’