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Public Prosecutor v Lin Schiow Her [1993] VUSC 15 (3 December 1993)

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF
THE REPUBLIC OF VANUATU

PUBLIC PROSECUTOR

-v-

LIN SCHIOW HER

JUDGMENT

Small Island nations such as this one depend on their natural resources to exist. They have precious little natural resources as it is. We have no gold mines, we have no silver mines and no oil or other natural resources save for our fish. Therefore as a small island nation we depend on people such as you to behave yourselves when you are granted licences to fish our waters for the partly sum of $ 5,000 per year. When you breach the conditions of these licences or when you fish illegally in our national waters, you are stealing from us and you are depriving us of our livelihood. I am well aware that a sentence must not only be punitive, but that it must also be a deterrent. In this case the punitive effect of the sentence on you will be minimal as I am acutely conscious of the fact that you certainly will not be the one to pay this fine. The sentence must therefore be a deterrent not only to yourself and those who employ you and send you here to fish, but also to others like yourself who would be tempted out of greed to come and fish our national waters illegally. They must know that the sort of mistake that you claim that you have made shall cost them heavily. It is only by passing substantial deterrent sentences that we will be able to discourage others from fishing our waters illegally. I do not accept for one moment that you, an experienced captain of a fishing vessel, was accidentally fishing in the territorial waters of Vanuatu; besides the evidence shows quite the opposite. The moment you saw the Orion, you pulled away your line and left our territorial waters. I am also aware that there are considerable sums of money to be made out of these waters; indeed you had over 25 million vt worth-of fish onboard. I am told by Mr Baxter-Wright that the costs of such prosecutions are astronomical when everything is taken into account, such as the use of an Orion aircraft, the sending out of the Takoro to bring you in and so on.

I therefore pass the following sentence upon you:

i) On count 1 you will pay a fine of Vatu 20 million

ii) on count 3 you will pay an additional fine of Vatu 5 million

Because of the expenses attached to the bringing of such cases as these to court, I estimate the cost of this prosecution at Vatu 10 million. In addition therefore to your fine you will pay prosecution costs of Vatu 10 million: that is a total of Vatu 35 million. You will pay that sum as soon as possible or the owners of the ship will pay it as soon as possible. You will remain here in Vanuatu until such time as the fine and the costs are payed [sic].

I also order confiscation of the catch, and the Minister or the Ministry of the fisheries people will decide what they want to do with it. They will probably sell it back to you. I will not order confiscation of your ship or your tackle, we have use for them. The sooner you are out of our jurisdiction the better, but you will not be allowed to leave until such time as the fines and the costs are fully paid up.

The sentence that I passed on you is meant to be a deterrent not only to yourself, but as I pointed out, also to others who would be minded to come and steal our fish.

DATED at Port Vila this 3rd of December 1993.

CHARLES VAUDIN d'IMECOURT
Chief Justice