The company at the heart of the black fish scam which involved thirteen Shetland fishermen and four others from the rest of Scotland was ordered to pay back GBP 1.5 million of its illegal profits today.
Shetland Catch was also fined GBP 150,000 for its role in helping skippers to get round quota regulations with an elaborate and secret electronic measuring system which concealed how much fish was actually processed at its factory.
Prosecutors had claimed that helping to land mackerel and herring which it did not declare to the authorities earned the Lerwick plant more than GBP 6 million. Using legislation more usually directed against drug barons, the Crown demanded that the money be confiscated.
Shetland Catch challenged the demand and Lord Turnbull heard a week of evidence and legal argument at the High Court in Edinburgh earlier this year before announcing his decision on Wednesday.
