Co-op man’s ‘fuel smuggling’ ship will not be released

The Court of Appeal has confirmed a lower court’s refusal to release a fishing vessel allegedly used to smuggle fuel together with its cargo of 34,600 litres of gasoil, observing that it was set up to transfer fuel and not fish.

The fishing vessel Dimitra and its distinctly non-piscatorial cargo had been seized by customs in 2013 on suspicion that it was being used to smuggle fuel.

Paul Piscopo, owner of Dimitra Fishing Company, Mediterranean Samac Ltd and Sunoil Management Co Ltd, had his boat Dimitra seized in July 2013 by Customs officers. The operation led to the seizure of four vessels with undeclared diesel on board. Piscopo’s boat alone carried 34,600 litres of diesel, 8,000 litres of which were smuggled.

Piscopo is also a president of fishing cooperative Għaqda Koperattiva Sajjieda.

The owners of the Dimitra, Paul Piscopo and his wife Alexandra, had subsequently filed court proceedings requesting the release of the vessel and its cargo. This request was objected to by the customs Director General who argued that the fuel had been found, stored in plastic tanks on the vessel in suspicious circumstances.

The vessel was stopped in the contiguous zone of Maltese maritime territory and there were indications that it was being used to regularly smuggle fuel without paying VAT and duty on it, he said.

When it was intercepted by the AFM, the vessel’s monitoring system (VMS) had been found to be turned off at sea, there was no fishing equipment on board and its fishing licence had expired. Instead, AFM personnel found eight 1,000 litre plastic tanks full of fuel for which the ship’s captain and crew had no explanation.

The Dimitra was escorted to the Grand Harbour for further investigation. More plastic tanks of fuel were found in the hold.

The Piscopos had argued that the Dimitra ought to be released, amongst other reasons, because fishing was their livelihood and as the value of the allegedly untaxed fuel was disproportionate to the value of the vessel.

In 2017, the First Hall of the Civil Court, presided by Mr Justice Silvio Meli had dismissed the request, and ordered the police to investigate the owners, saying that the “resultant indications were that the company was involved in the contraband of petroleum products through the use of fishing vessels.”

The owners had filed an appeal, arguing amongst other things, that the vessel had been outside Maltese territorial waters at the time it was intercepted, that the VMS had been malfunctioning and that no criminal proceedings had been filed against them by the police and so it was “out of place” for the court to order them to do so. Moreover, the crew had been charged with criminal offences in relation to the incident and found not guilty, they said.

The Court of Appeal, presided by Chief Justice Mark Chetcuti, noted that the vessel was intercepted 22 nautical miles off the Maltese coast, therefore inside Maltese territorial waters. Since it was Maltese flagged, the Maltese authorities had authority to board the vessel anywhere.

All of the fuels found aboard the MV Dimitra could not have originated from an approved and legal source by Maltese distributors, because gasoil sold in Malta as duty free must have a Sudan Marker and red dye in it. Both of these were missing.

A court-appointed expert reported that the vessel had been set up to deliver diesel to third parties. “There was no sign that fishing activity was carried out recently.”

The Court said that from the evidence, the court of first instance had been correct in concluding that the apparatus was voluntarily turned off by the captain.

It said the action for confiscation was correct, that criminal proceedings against the captain were still pending and that the seizure notes were determined as being justified. “It is not the case that this court will uphold the appellants requests to release the objects subjected to the contested notes of seizure.”