A major player in an illegal abalone harvesting scheme has been jailed for nearly two years.
St Albans mother of two Phong Hoai Thuy Nguyen, 41, was jailed last Wednesday for 23 months and two weeks for buying abalone from divers and then selling it in Alfrieda Street, St Albans.
Star Weekly reported in January that 10 Brimbank divers were found guilty of taking abalone and other seafood from the south-west coast of Victoria several times a week. The fish was then onsold to two alleged ringleaders, based at Cairnlea and St Albans.
The divers were either jailed, fined up to $16,500 or copped fishing bans. Four divers who were sentenced to jail have launched appeals to be heard in April.
The County Court heard last week that between March and October, 2014, fisheries officers observed Nguyen 37 times receiving deliveries of abalone at her house.
They also saw her selling the abalone and other illegally poached seafood from a shopping trolley outside a grocery store 27 times.
Nguyen pleaded guilty to trafficking a commercial quantity of abalone, an offence which carries a maximum 10-year jail term, and charges of selling rock lobster and selling other molluscs without permission.
Judge Sue Pullen said Nguyen’s role in the syndicate was at the top of their hierarchy and said the offending was organised and very serious given the impact illegal poaching had on the environment and the viability of the commercial abalone industry.
She said Nguyen’s subsequent sales had the potential to endanger the public’s health because she couldn’t ensure food hygiene standards.
Prosecutors cannot say how much money Nguyen made, but Judge Pullen put a pecuniary penalty order – the revenue the state was denied – at $18,000.
A Cairnlea man and his wife will face the County Court in March.
More arrests
Nguyen’s sentencing comes as Fisheries Victoria cracks down on poaching operations across the state.
Last Saturday, four men in their 20s were allegedly caught with 191 abalone at Altona after a tip-off from a member of the public.
The men, from Kings Park and Deer Park, will face charges of taking 171 undersized abalone, taking more than the catch limit, taking molluscs from the intertidal zone, and taking commercial quantities of a priority species.
In a separate incident, a Deer Park man was fined $1365 after being arrested in Portarlington on January 20 for taking abalone out of season and other offences involving sea urchins and molluscs.
Two women, also of Deer Park, will be summonsed to appear before the magistrates court on similar charges.
