Acharacle shellfish firm fined for failure over paperwork

A court has heard how a tipoff to Highland Council in November 2016 led to a multi-agency investigation into an Acharacle-based shellfish company.

As a result of the probe, GC Shellfish Ltd, of Newton Cottage, Newton, Acharacle, was fined £2,400 at Fort William Sheriff Court on Monday after it admitted handling winkles and cockles between April 8 and November 15, 2016, at Newton, without the required documentation.

The total amount of cockles and winkles involved was 603kg, for which the pickers were paid £1,453. The molluscs had then been sold for £3,284 – a difference of £1,831.

Procurator fiscal Martina Eastwood said the company, which employs five people and was represented in court by sole director Gordon Cameron, 50, had failed to fill in the triplicate paperwork needed.

‘The investigation saw invoice books seized which contained evidence that cockles and winkles had been gathered by other people,’ Mrs Eastwood told the court.

‘The essence of the two charges is that the company did not have the necessary documentation which should have accompanied the shellfish.’

A plea of not guilty to a charge of acting as a gangmaster and ‘facilitating people to labour, and to supply transport and equipment and have workers sell the company shellfish for onward sale all while unlicensed to do so’ was accepted by the Crown.

Further pleas of not guilty to charges involving placing bivalve molluscs from unclassified waters on the market for human consumption; and to putting on the market molluscs from waters not classified as safe to do so, were also accepted by the Crown.

Defence agent Alan Gravelle told the court the long-running case had been both complex and novel. ‘But what we are left with now are two administration charges as a result of the company taking possession of a product without documentation,’ he said.

‘The key is the triplicate documentation system – the pickers are supposed to have documents from which they keep a copy, lodge a copy with Highland Council and a third copy remains with the product.’

Mr Gravelle added that the company had not traded in cockles and winkles since the contraventions came to light.

‘Following extensive inquiries for the preparation of this case and investigations with the pickers, there was no issue of either Mr Cameron or the company acting as a gangmaster and this was accepted by the Crown and that there had been no harm to any consumer. These were the two most serious of the charges. The two charges we are left with are due to bad administration more than anything else.

‘In the two and a half years since the investigation started, there have been no further offences – and there were none before either.’

The court heard the firm had been dealing in cockles and mussels since 2016 but had now diversified into other shellfish such as velvet crabs and lobster.

Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald told Cameron, as a representative of GC Shellfish Ltd, that the rules were in place for a reason.