The last of almost 30 Scottish fishing skippers involved in the biggest fraud the industry has ever seen pled guilty at the High Court in Edinburgh on Thursday.
The four men, all part of the same extended Fraserburgh family, admitted illegally landing herring and mackerel worth more than GBP 6.5 million at Shetland Catch in Lerwick and the Alexander Buchan Ltd. processing factory in Peterhead.
They played a part in a GBP 63 million fraud that involved 27 fishing skippers landing 170,000 tons of “black fish” at three fish factories in Scotland’s north east and Shetland.
Fifty year olds Andrew Tait and William Whyte Tait, along with 45-year-old Robert Tait and 44-year-old Peter Tait were at the helm of four different fishing boats — Taits, Chris Andra, Conquest and Challenge.
They were each responsible for landing illegal fish worth between GBP 1.5 million and GBP 1.8 million between 2002 and 2006.
