South-West fisherman who carried out a sophisticated fraud to get more than
$20,000 from the Department of Fisheries has received a hefty fine in Bunbury
District Court.



Nicolas Emanuel Soulos, 53, is set to be stripped of his commercial fishing licence
after he was fined $25,000 for claiming an inflated amount of compensation for
his father and himself when crab fishing was banned in Geographe Bay in 2005.



Soulos pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud.



The court was told that Soulos inflated his catch figures and got $13,000 more
for himself and $11,000 more for his father than either was entitled to.



Soulos’ father was unaware of his son’s fraudulent actions.



Defence counsel Phillip Laskaris said Soulos had inflated the catch figures in
a bid to persuade the Department of Fisheries to allow fishing.



“It was not to get an ex gratia payment, but was solely to persuade authorities
in charge of Geographe Bay that the fishery could sustain a commercial catch,”
he said.



State prosecutor David Lima rejected the claim, pointing out that Soulos had
gone to considerable lengths to falsify documents.



It was a more sophisticated example than most fraud cases, Mr Lima said.



The court was told that Soulos would now not be able to work as a commercial
fisherman.



He had paid back the illegally obtained money.



In July, Soulos was fined $40,000 for filing false catch returns and selling
specimen shells illegally.

Courtesy of the West Australian

“It was not to get an ex gratia payment, but was solely to persuade authorities
in charge of Geographe Bay that the fishery could sustain a commercial catch,”
he said. 

- so that's OK is it?