A man from Brecon has been fined more than £2,200 for ‘barbaric’ foul hooking fishing.

Phungan Nguyen pleaded guilty in court to deliberately using the illegal foul hooking techniques to catch fish from the River Loughor in June 2021.

Mr Nguyen and two others were seen by Natural Resource Wales (NRW) Enforcement Officers, deliberately using the illegal foul hooking/snatching method to catch different species of fish. This was following several reports from members of the public regarding suspicious activity of illegal fishing taking place under the A484 Loughor to Llanelli road bridge.

Mr Nguyen was fined £400, ordered to pay costs of £1,800 each and also a £40 victim surcharge each.

Natural Resources Wales fisheries enforcement officers have been busy tackling a spate of these illegal foul hooking incidents along the river.

Mark Thomas, Fisheries Enforcement Officer for NRW, said: “We would like to thank Dyfed Powys Police, the local communities and also the law-abiding anglers in the area for their continued support in reporting these illegal fishing activities.

“The use of this barbaric and totally unethical form of fishing is being carried out by a minority of anglers.

“It is not only indiscriminate on what species or size of fish that are killed, but untold damage is also inflicted to fish by the anglers who use this method using deliberately tampered standard fishing lures.

“Many oversized and multiple treble hooked fishing lures have been seized which have been used to deliberately impale fish and inflict untold damaged to them when the multiple barbed treble hooks impale into their body flesh and internal organs.

“These damaged and wounded fish can become infected and die due to the injuries sustained and then possibly in the process infect other fish species in the river catchment.

“NRW Enforcement Officers and the local police forces takes these fisheries incidents seriously as do the courts. Hopefully the small minority of anglers who may in future, think of using any illegal fishing methods will take heed of these heavy fines issued by the courts.”