A Vancouver Island man, previously found guilty of co-ordinating an illegal fishing operation and repeated fisheries act violations, has been handed more jail time, but won’t spend more time behind bars.
Last July, Scott Stanley Matthew Steer, now 49 and from Gabriola Island, was sentenced to six years in prison and fined $1.1 million in B.C. Supreme Court for being behind an illegal sea cucumber harvesting operation for events between July and December of 2019. The court also found that his wife Melissa was involved.
In B.C. Provincial Court in Nanaimo on Friday, May 1, judge Tamara Hodge sentenced Steer to an additional six months, although it will be served concurrently, as opposed to consecutively.
The judge stated the 2019 events for which Steer was sentenced last year were not considered in her ruling.
However, she said that events from a Fisheries and Oceans Canada investigation from October 2020 were considered, where Ryan Moulder, a Fisheries and Oceans Canada officer, served Steer with a notice advising him to that he was required to keep proper records and provide information regarding his fishing, according to Hodge. Steer refused to sign the notice.
Further, Moulder served Steer and his wife with notice again in September 2021 and Steer “on more than one occasion interrupted the process,” Hodge said during sentencing. A deadline for records to be submitted was set for Oct. 1, 2021, but was never received.
When Moulder was serving Steer, the officer noticed a “flat deck high vehicle, with a hydroponic arm on it that’s associated with picking up or delivering fish” and large seafood totes related to commercial fishing, the judge stated and she saw “no mitigating factors present.” Further the degree of his culpability is high and has vast experience in the industry.
“As set out in the numerous fishery act cases he has personally been involved in, he has had a vast amount of experience in dealing with and avoiding the rules and regulations of the fisheries act, decades worth of experience.” said Hodge. “He has had past involvement with the authorities, and his past infractions speak to that. He has not shown any remorse nor taken responsibility for his actions.”
Ian McFadgen, Crown counsel, sought six additional months in prison, citing Steer’s record. It includes 34 convictions on 13 prior cases from as far back as 2008, when he was found guilty of selling fish without a licence and fishing in an area where it wasn’t allowed.
David Ennis, Steer’s legal counsel, noted his client has been either under house arrest or in jail the past five years, with no ability to make money, is in the middle of divorce proceedings with his wife and has no savings. As he already has to deal with the $1.1 million fine, Ennis sought a $10,000 fine and if it had to be higher, no more than $30,000, the same amount levied on his wife.
Ennis questioned financial documents, obtained by Moulder, from being entered into evidence. Moulder was called in to testify, and ultimately, Hodge deemed the evidence admissible.
Both McFadgen and Ennis declined a request for comment following sentencing.
– Files from Jessica Durling, Nanaimo News Bulletin