Eight men from Kent, one from Bexley and one from Bromley have been fined more than £2,200 between them for fishing without a licence.

All had failed to pay for permission to fish legally even though the most expensive licence is just £86.10 a year and the money goes back into improving the UK’s waterways.

On April Fool’s Day, Jayme Randall, 27, of Tilghman Way, Snodland, was challenged by enforcement officers at Claygate Lakes in Paddock Wood.

On the same day, Miles Minall, 36, from Aspdin Road, Northfleet was caught fishing illegally at Monk Lakes in Maidstone. Both men were fined £220.

On the May Day weekend this year, two more men were also fined the same amount.

Tony Simpson, 40, of Oakdene Road, Orpington, was caught at Linear Fisheries near Witney, in Oxfordshire.

Harry Hawkins, 20, from The Green, in Bearsted, was spoken to by an Environment Agency officer at Hothfield Lakes, near Ashford.

All four men each had to pay costs of £135 and an £88 victim surcharge.

A few days later, Will Glover, 38, of Fleetwood Avenue, Herne Bay, was fined £108 after not buying a licence to fish at Longshaw Fisheries, near Canterbury.

On the same day, Ben Barratt, of Central Parade, Herne Bay, was fined £220 after fishing illegally at Horsmonden Lakes near Tunbridge Wells.

A court ordered Glover and Barratt to pay £65 and £135 respectively in costs. Glover was told to pay a victim surcharge of £43, and Barratt one of £88.

Police caught Luke Firth, 33, of Top Dartford Road, Swanley, in May and he was fined £220 for not having a licence to fish at Orchard Place Farm in Paddock Wood.

Abraham Hilden, 22, of St Barnabus Close in Ashford, was also fined £220 for casting his rod unlicensed at Hothfield.

Costs of £135 each were ordered against both men, as well as an £88 victim surcharge.

Gheorge Neculcea, 52, of Church Street, Maidstone, failed to buy a coarse fishing licence for the town’s River Len and was fined £292 as a result.

Ryan Churchill, 26, of Coniston Close, Bexleyheath, was also fined £310 after failing to get a licence to fish at Horsmonden.

Costs of £65 each were awarded against Neculcea and Churchill. Neculcea’s victim surcharge was £116 and Churchill had to pay £124.

Richard Higgins, 60, of Rochester Road, Gravesend, was given a 28-day conditional discharge for unlawful fishing at Tricklebrook Fishery in Paddock Wood.

He was told he could be sentenced again for this offence if he broke the law in that time. He paid £135 in costs, and a £26 victim surcharge.

Anyone aged 13 or over needs a licence to fish for salmon, trout, eels or freshwater species and it can cost as little as £6.60 for a day.

Glover and Neculcea pleaded guilty at Hastings Magistrates’ Court on September 29. Firth, Hawkins, Hilden and Randall were sentenced in their absence on the same date by the same court.

At the same court on November 6, Churchill admitted his offence but Barratt, Minall and Simpson were sentenced in their absence.

Higgins failed to enter a plea before Folkestone magistrates on October 20.

The 10 anglers fined were given penalties in total of £2,250, while all 11 men had to pay overall costs of £1,275, and an extra £925 in victim surcharges.

Kye Jerrom, a senior enforcement officer with the Environment Agency, said: “Fishing licences are great value and much cheaper than fines.

“We raise tens of millions of pounds every year to stock waters with fish, and improve rivers and fisheries for anglers and the wider environment.

“It’s quick, easy and cheap to get a licence: by phone and online – search fishing licence on gov.uk.

“Our fisheries enforcement officers carry out regular checks on private lakes, rivers, ponds and canals – anywhere that can be fished. Information on suspected illegal fishing can be called into our incident hotline: 0800 80 70 60.”