A TYRONE man has been sentenced for smuggling hundreds of endangered European eels from Ireland into Wales.
Kevin Forbes, of Rossa Court in Dungannon, had 37 boxes of eels hidden in a pallet locker beneath the trailer of a HGV he had driven from Dublin.
They were discovered by Border Force officers at Holyhead Port in the early hours of January 3, 2024, who were carrying out checks on the paperwork for goods the 33-year-old was carrying in.
Forbes had no documentation for the eels, which can no longer be exported legally due to being on a ‘critically endangered’ list.
“They were also being carried in stressful and poor conditions with a lack of water,” a spokesperson for the North Wales Police Force said.
The endangered eels seized at Holyhead Port“He claimed to have collected the eels from outside the port in Dublin after the driver originally carrying them into the UK had broken down,” they explained.
“An examination of the eels that were still alive was carried out at the port that evening by an officer from the Centre for Environment Fisheries and Science (CEFAS), and those considered to be suffering were euthanised at the scene,” they added.
A joint investigation between the North Wales Police Rural Crime Team, National Wildlife Crime Unit and CEFAS was then launched, which saw Forbes charged in November 2024 with offences under the Customs and Excise Act and the Animal Welfare Act.
He appeared at Mold Crown Court on Tuesday, January 28, where we was sentenced to 12 months in prison, suspended for 18 months, for causing the unnecessary suffering to a protected animal.
He must also carry out 150 hours unpaid work and was handed a £1,500 fine.