Every seafood lover knows good quality rock lobster doesn’t come cheap. But disgraced Wollongong fisherman Pasquale Brancatisano may have just earned the unfortunate title of having the most expensive catch ever netted.
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The former head angler for Unanderra-based fishing company Lochiel South Pty Ltd has already been fined $76,000 and jailed for two years for playing the central role in a major commercial fishing scam that saw him illegally catch and on-sell 640kgs of lobster between February 2013 and April 2014.
Court documents reveal NSW Fisheries recorded Brancatisano under-tagging (or failing to tag) his catch on multiple occasions over the 14-month period in a bid to skirt the legal quota for lobster under NSW law.
Now, his associates who benefited from the scheme have been penalised more than $2 million in fines, professional costs and shareholding forfeitures.
In a judgement handed down in Sutherland Local Court on Wednesday, Magistrate David Williams imposed a total of $836,000 in fines on two businesses and two individuals and ordered the parties pay legal fees totaling $492,000.
He described the offending as “sustained, consistent and systemic” and said the ramifications of breaches of such laws could be damaging well into the future.
“These are environmental offences, meaning they are offences against this generation and the next,” he said.
The biggest fine – $398,000 in total – was handed to Seacliff Functions Pty Ltd, a business owned by the family of former Wollongong Lord Mayor George Harrison and the parent company of The Lagoon and Seacliff restaurants.
Lagoon head chef, Emanuel Efstathiadis, was fined $20,000 and handed a suspended jail sentence for acting as the conduit between the restaurants and the fishing company.
In an apparent bid to reduce his sentence, Efstathiadis had earlier claimed he would be hard-pressed to pay a fine and may have to sell an investment property to stump up the money.
Magistrate Williams was less than impressed, saying a submission of hardship was reserved for people in far worse situations than Efstathiadis.
“The community would be astonished by a court that took into account in any significant way a person having to sell an investment property as [an argument for] hardship,” he said in rejecting the submission.
Meantime, Lochiel South was fined $378,000 for failing to uphold its corporate responsibility to ensure the actions of its employee, Brancatisano, were above board.
As part of the court’s judgement, Lochiel South was also stripped of almost $800,000 worth of shares in the state’s lobster management scheme, meaning it will no longer be able to fish for the popular delicacy.
Meantime, Wollongong businessman Tory Lavalle, whose service to the community includes sponsoring the Illawarra Hawks and the Wollongong Wolves, was fined $40,000 in his role as a director of Lochiel South.
Magistrate Williams said he was satisfied that Lavalle was aware of Brancatisano’s illegal activity and on one occasion actively participated in it.
Wednesday’s judgement ended a mammoth court case which has been heard in stages over a period of about 18 months. However the Mercury understands some, if not all of the parties, plan on appealing their convictions and fines, meaning a second round of court proceedings could soon begin in the NSW District Court.
Evidence relied upon in the case included hours of covert surveillance carried out by Fisheries officers, GPS vessel movement data from the Lochiel South fishing boat, daily catch log sheets, trap records, Brancatisano’s tax invoice books, consignment records and financial records from Seacliff and Lochiel South.
Who’s paying what:
Seacliff Functions Pty Ltd (owned by the Harrsion family)
Fine: $398,000
Costs: $150,000
Lochiel South Pty Ltd (fishing company)
Fine: $378,000
Costs: $70,000
Value of forfeited shares: approx $800,000
Tory Lavalle (director of Lochiel South)
Fine: $40,000
Costs: $7,000
Emanuel Efstathiadis (chef at The Lagoon)
Fine: $20,000
Sentence: 12m suspended jail term
Costs: $15,000
Pasquale Brancatisano (head fisherman at Lochiel)
Fine: $76,000
Sentence: Two years’ jail
Costs: $250,000
Fines + costs + forfeiture value:
$2.1m