A FISH dealer narrowly avoided jail for smuggling 262 diseased carp into the country. If the illegal cargo had not been discovered after arriving through the Channel Tunnel in Folkestone, there could have been potentially disastrous consequences, a court heard.

Paul Feldberg, prosecuting, said the particular strain of the disease SVC in carp had never before been seen in this country. If there was an outbreak in the fishery, it would be quarantined for three years.

Maidstone Crown Court was told that Mark Dallas, accompanied by Lee Coles, brought the consignment weighing 1.5 tonnes and valued at £80,000-90,000 from an importer in Belgium to the UK in a lorry on April 15 last year.

Mr Feldberg said Dallas, 37, had been convicted of similar offences twice before. His company Premier Fish Supplies had previously legitimately imported fish on 24 occasions.

In the last six years there had only been 14 recorded outbreaks of SVC in fish.

“The purpose of the legislation is to prevent disease coming into this country,” said Mr Feldberg. “This particular strain has not been known in this country before.”

It was highly contagious and the economic consequences were serious, he said, but it was not akin to BSE as there was no danger to humans. Carp was eaten in France and Germany but not in the UK.

Dallas, of Old Woodham Road, Battlesbridge, Essex, and Coles, of Melbourne Avenue, Chelmsford, Essex, admitted failing to give notification of a consignment of live fish. The maximum sentence for the offence is two years in prison.

Dallas was given a nine month sentence suspended for two years and Coles was ordered to complete a 100 hours community punishment order.

James Lendle, for Dallas, said his client was an experienced fish dealer who had never before been sold diseased fish. He hoped to make £25,000 from the carp.

A former bankrupt, he now had nothing to do with fish and ran a carwash business, employing seven people. He had parted from his wife and was caring for their three children.

Cathy Bradshaw, for Coles, 29, said he was not involved in the fishing industry. He took out a £4,000 bank loan to pay for the fish and hoped to triple his investment.

The disease would not have spread, she said, because the fish were to be put in self-contained lakes.

Judge Warwick McKinnon said the offence, which was designed to make a quick profit, was serious. There had been deliberate flouting of regulations.

“Large profits were to be made at the cost of potentially devastating effects to the environment,” he said.

Dallas was more culpable, said the judge, as he was an experienced fish dealer. Coles did not seem to realise the potential environmental consequences.

“In your case, Dallas, a custodial sentence is absolutely essential, due to the grave nature of the offence,” said Judge McKinnon. “I do feel, just, that I can find exceptional circumstances, not that I do that with any relish because of the flouting of regulations.”