Gerrit Plug loses appeal over fishing offences

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Gerrit Plug lost his appeal against convictions for fishing offences at the Court of Appeal on 29 July 2016.

The convictions followed the boarding of his vessel by Naval Service and fisheries officers off County Donegal.

The court upheld convictions for failing to record discards, discarding quota species and exceeding separator-bar limits.

Plug had been convicted at Letterkenny Circuit Criminal Court on 27 March 2015 and fined €35,000 on each count.

The appeal court found the trial had been conducted fairly and matters had been left appropriately to the jury.