Fisherman sold blackmarket crayfish
A fisherman who fell in with sharks – loan sharks – has been sentenced for his unlawful efforts to solve his financial problems.
Isacc Lee Kereama, 37, will have to do four months of community detention, 100 hours of community work, and nine months of intensive supervision for selling blackmarket crayfish.
He will also have to be assessed and attend a department rehabilitation programme if required.
At his sentencing in the Christchurch District Court, Judge Noel Walsh warned him that he already had three breaches of community work on his record and a fourth breach would mean jail.
Kereama has 22 dishonesty convictions. Probation’s recommendations in their pre-sentence report were aimed to get him out of the offending cycle he has been in, according to defence counsel Mark Callaghan.
Kereama pleaded guilty soon after his arrest last year on a charge of selling crayfish to make money, outside the requirements of the Fisheries Act.
He explained at an early court appearance that his fishing business had not made the money he expected and when he went to loan sharks he found he was paying exorbitant interest rates.
Judge Walsh noted he had sold crayfish on the blackmarket at least 17 times, often arranged by text messages which were traced, and sometimes arranged ahead of time. This indicated he intended to fish outside the quota system.
Kereama, who was fishing out of Tikao Bay on Banks Peninsula, faced the prospect of losing his fishing gear including his leased boat, the Crusader 2, when he was caught.
He explained to the fisheries officers who investigated and arrested him that if he had not taken his desperate measures to make money, he would have forfeited his boat.
Ministry of Primary Industries prosecutor Grant Fletcher confirmed that Kereama had been willing to give evidence at the trial of the person described as the ringleader of the blackmarket operation, Tony Mahara, 36.
Mahara pleaded guilty on the day his trial was due to start on July 29, and received an 11-month home detention sentence.
Kereama now works as a roofer.
Category: Focus
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