A “recalcitrant” illegal abalone seller from Springvale has been placed on a community corrections order.
Ke Yern Tran, 57, pled guilty at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court to the unauthorized selling of abalone at three locations between August 2024-January 2025.
He allegedly sold the lucrative seafood at Sandown Greyhounds Racing Club, Boronia and Springvale.
A Victorian Fisheries Authority prosecutor told the court on 24 July that Tran was found with scales, plastic bags and 20 kilograms of abalone – well in excess of the legal catch limit.
Tran was said to have approached a would-be customer at a pokies venue, who told him that he shouldn’t be selling the product.
Tran reportedly replied he didn’t care, the prosecutor told the court.
His illegal trading was reported by a citizen on the VFA’s 13 FISH hotline.
The prosecutor submitted for a penalty of a community corrections order with unpaid work hours.
Trafficking and selling of abalone was an “extremely lucrative” trade, meaning that fines alone were not an adequate deterrent, she told the court.
Arguing for a fine payment plan, a defence lawyer said Tran hadn’t been in front of court since being fined for illegally fishing abalone in 2006.
He’d also received substantial infringement fines for abalone offences.
Magistrate John Hardy noted Tran faced a maximum of 12 months’ jail or $120,000 fine for each charge.
He questioned how the Centrelink recipient who was paying off a mortgage could pay a fine.
Mr Hardy – who had earlier asked Tran several times to plead guilty or not guilty – warned Tran about his “recalcitrant” attitude in not answering questions in court “appropriately”.
“I am not interested in your excuses because they are not true.
“You’ve been caught fishing and taking them yourself. You can’t just buy them from anybody.”
Tran was at “high risk” of jail if he was caught with abalone again, Mr Hardy said.
He was advised to go to a restaurant or a licensed fishmonger if he wanted to eat abalone.
“Unless you hold a licence, you’re not allowed to take more than a few abalone.
“Those licences are very few and they cost hundreds or thousands of dollars to obtain.”
Tran was sentenced to an 18-month community corrections order, including 150 hours of unpaid work.
