BRITAIN'S largest privately-owned fish firm has escaped a heavy fine for flouting strict EU quota rules after the judge said he had taken into account the "considerable" impact severe penalties could have on the local economy.

Newlyn-based W Stevenson and Sons was given a two-year conditional discharge instead of a fine at Exeter Crown Court yesterday.

Judge Philip Wassall said that, throughout the trial, he had "not lost of sight" of the fact that whatever happened in this case could have a "considerable" knock-on effect on others involved in the fishing industry in and around Newlyn.

He said: "There are simply not the resources for me to consider imposing fines that are really appropriate to the charges themselves."

The court heard yesterday that W Stevenson and Sons employed a "substantial" sea-going staff, and for each sea-going employee there were between three and five shore-based staff. Judge Wassall was also told that, added to the firm's principle suppliers, there were at least 60 firms supplying equipment to the company and that it acts as an "agent" for a further 120 vessels, employing 210 sea-going men.

The firm had been facing a confiscation order of up to £4 million – the sum it was estimated it had reaped from its illegal activity.

However, last month the confiscation hearing was adjourned after Plymouth Crown Court heard the Sea Fisheries Agency officer involved in the trial had revisited the files and compiled new data which altered the situation.

Yesterday, Exeter Crown Court heard that, following these developments, the prosecution and defence teams had agreed on a figure of £710,220 as the sum of money the firm had benefited by through its offences.

Judge Wassall said he thought this figure was "fair and appropriate". He also ordered the firm to pay prosecution costs of £66,413. The firm has six months to pay the money.

Judge Wassall said: "It's important to note that there will be a substantial amount of money coming back to the public purse having removed the benefits of crime from this partnership."

In April 2007 at Exeter Crown Court, the firm pleaded guilty to running a scam between April and September 2002 which involved falsifying landing documents in order to sell more expensive fish.

The scam involved so-called black fish from restricted species such as cod or hake being put through the books as other types of fish for which there was spare quota.

This enabled the company to break European rules designed to save dwindling fish stocks, the prosecution said.

W Stevenson and Sons admitted 37 charges of submitting a false sales note to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

The previous year the partnership was found guilty at Truro Crown Court of eight similar charges of falsifying fish sales notes.

The court heard boats landed high-value quota species of fish such as cod, hake and anglerfish, but then mis-described them on documents supplied to Defra as non-quota species like ling, turbot and bass.

Passing the sentence Judge Wassall described the scam as a "substantial agreement to commit crime".

He added that it required "considerable organisation" and employees of W Stevenson and Sons must have been "at the centre of this conspiracy".

However, he praised the company for the "turn around" it had made since these offences were committed and said he accepted evidence that it was now "leading the industry" in making its views about controversial EU fishing quotas heard, through the correct channels.

"Brussels is where this battle needs to be fought," he said.

He added: "Taking things forward with Government is the right way to do these things. The wrong way is to try to get behind regulations by the back door and get involved in an elaborate conspiracy which essentially re-vouched fish and therefore got around quota restrictions."

In sentencing the company to a two-year conditional discharge, he said: "This puts them on trust to continue to take matters forward in the way that they have."

Speaking outside the court Elizabeth Stevenson, a partner in the firm, said it was "very grateful" to the judge for recognising its contribution to the local and national fishing industry, and to the local economy. Although it would be hard for the company to find the money to pay the confiscation order, she said: "W Stevenson and Sons will survive."

She added that the motivation behind the scam was not financial greed but survival, as "jobs and livelihoods were at stake".

And she said W Stevenson and Sons would take the judge's advice and continue to pursue the "injustices" of the quota system with the relevant Government and EU bodies.