Cashing in or confessing?

[Elton]

Mark, How can Williams be any more guilty than Banks? surely the sentence will be the same ? £800 fine and £500 costs or to put it another way....what is Williams guilty of that Banks is not? please enlighten me.

 

It was his car? Just a thought.

[Peter Waller]

Cashing in? We can only suspect, but certainly AT will be hoping to sell more copies.

 

Biggest mistake of his life? We can only guess whether this is the first time, in which case it probably is the 'biggest mistake'.

 

My guess is that it was the most unfortunate event in his life in that he was caught.

 

Pleading guilty, what else could he do in the circumstance?

 

Nige, you deserve what you get, and probably more.

 

Does he come from a broken home? Does he belong to a disadvantaged group? In which case he might get away with it.

Edited November 17, 2006 by Peter Waller

[Leon Roskilly]

er, Shouldn't this be in the angling politics/conservation section?

[Dunk Fairley]

"Disadvantaged group"? Yes of course, He's an Angler!

[Dick Dastardly]

It was his car? Just a thought.

 

I had wondered that as well Elton,a bit like smuggling beer/fags?

 

Im going to stop guessing or even trying to work out the whys and wherefores as I dont believe Im getting the true details.Everything I read says a different reason,a different charge and a different offence.

 

The real danger of all of this confussion is that people will definately use this case as a point of reference in the years to come and all the "facts" just wont be acurate. Not that that will be anything new in the great livebait issue!

[Dave Lumb]

Mark, How can Williams be any more guilty than Banks? surely the sentence will be the same ? £800 fine and £500 costs or to put it another way....what is Williams guilty of that Banks is not? please enlighten me.

 

Didn't the fish come from Williams's water? Maybe that has some bearing.

[Sportsman]

The fine may also be linked to the defendants personal circumstances and ability to pay. In other words, the more money you have, the higher the fine.

[Bob Bradford]

I do not wish to muddy the waters further, but I seem to recall they were driving identical vehicles,with identical hidden tanks installed? maybe they were charged with different offences but I fail to see how.

[Dick Dastardly]

Do you know what,I just dont care anymore.What happens to them,what happens to live baiting or what happens to angling itself.Im just going to carry on minding my own buisness doing my own fishing the way I want.Ive just suddenly stopped caring. Or rather got fed up with caring. I wont be commenting on the whole issue anymore.

[mark barrett]

I do not wish to muddy the waters further, but I seem to recall they were driving identical vehicles,with identical hidden tanks installed? maybe they were charged with different offences but I fail to see how.

 

 

Bob,

 

i didnt mean that they would get fined differently, though actually i think they will. What i actually meant was that techincally Nige is still innocent untill proven guilty, and therefore i believe that he would still be sub judice, which is why i think the article may have to be pulled, but then i am not a lawyer so i may be wrong.

 

personally from reading between the lines of the reporting so far, i think that because of the perceived stature of nige williams DEFRA are really looking at making an example out of him. also because effectively DEFRA will have had to come to court twice, then i cannot imagine that his costs will be anything like the same.

 

The guy from DEFRA has made mention of the fact that the case has already cost in the region of £5,000 to bring to court, my personal view is that they are looking at getting that back from Mr Williams, and like has already been said, there may be the extra factor of the fine being linked to ability to pay.

 

From a completely personal point of view £1,300 for a fine and costs would be pretty devastating, and take a while to settle, but for others less so. hopefully the adjudicatio will be enough to make those even contemplating doing similar to reconsider, after all surely thats what we all want?