ONE of the most familiar faces on the Lymington quayside has been landed with a bill of more than £50,000 for breaking fishing laws.

For 42 years, Graham Butler has been fishing for shellfish off the New Forest coast.

But he has been breaking the law by failing to complete records of his catches. He even filled in and submitted one log of his fishing in Greek.

The Marine and Fisheries Agency took Butler, who is chairman of Lymington Harbour Commissioners, to court after they monitored him for eight months last year.

Butler, 61, pleaded guilty to 16 allegations of failing to complete logbooks and submit records. He also asked for a further 74 similar offences to be taken into consideration when he appeared at Portsmouth Magistrates Court.

Nicola Cole, prosecuting, told the court the value of Butler's catches during the time he was monitored was estimated at £25,606.

The court heard Butler, of Gosport Street, Lymington, was a chemist before he started fishing. He also runs an engineering and pyrotechnics business.

He built his own boat, the Chale Bay, in 1990, which the court heard is worth £80,000.

Barry Keale, representing Butler, said: "He is a bit of a character and clearly there is no room for characters such as Mr Butler's in the fishing field today.

"Further requirements have been placed on fishermen in recent years and this is where Mr Butler has been caught up. He carried on completing the forms as he has always done."

Butler was fined £5,000 for each offence of failing to complete the logbook and failing to submit records. He was also fined a total of £4,533.50 - the value of individual catches that were known, and was ordered to pay £5,480 costs. The total amount he must pay is £50,013.50.

District Judge Ann Arnold told him: "These offences demonstrate a flagrant disregard of the requirements concerning the monitoring of fish stocks. You have shown a cavalier attitude."

Outside court, Angus Radford, the south east district inspector for the Marine and Fisheries Agency, told the Daily Echo: "The agency is charged with ensuring fishermen complete logbooks so we can make an assessment of the catches taken from the sea.

"The point of the logbooks and records is to ensure there are stocks of fish in the future.

"In the case of Mr Butler, he has been obliged to complete them since 2000 and we have tried everything to get him to do so, including visiting him at home and offering him pre-paid envelopes to return the sheets to us. It's not a complicated procedure - it would take under five minutes.

"He did return one sheet to us completed in Greek. We would have accepted it, but it was missing a lot of information and that just illustrates his attitude."

Butler declined to comment.