Nottingham men caught on illegal fishing trip fined thousands
Date of alert:
Tuesday 22 February 2022
Crime Ref:
Force:
Nottinghamshire Police
Two men from Nottingham have been prosecuted after illegally fishing for crayfish.
Police officers from the Derbyshire Wildlife and Rural Crime Team watched the pair throwing traps into the River Derwent, Derby, and later found some signal crayfish had been caught.
The pair were spotted near the St Mary’s Bridge at around midnight on July 23, 2019.
The defendants had modified plastic mushroom crates to make traps to catch signal crayfish. A chicken carcass was also discovered, which was being used as bait.
In a nearby vehicle officers found further crates and a coil of wire used to make the crayfish traps, while stacked under the bridge and in the River Derwent were other traps baited with chicken carcasses.
Xiao Chaun Zhang, 41, of Prospect Road, Nottingham, was fined £400 and ordered to pay £690 costs after appearing at Southern Derbyshire Magistrates' Court on Monday (February 14).
