A MAN has been found guilty of forging a boat ownership certificate in order to sell it to a governmental body for BD26,000 following a nationwide shrimp trawling ban.
The High Criminal Court issued a one-year prison sentence, suspended for three years starting at the date of the verdict.
The 41-year-old fisherman from East Eker sold his banoosh (dhow) to the Agriculture Marine Resources Affairs despite not actually owning it, as he had previously mortgaged the boat at a bank, the court heard.
The sale was part of a government programme to provide relief to shrimpers, after trawling was banned in 2018, by paying them in exchange for giving up their permits, vessels and equipment.
The then-Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning Ministry launched a scheme to buy shimpers’ assets and convert their shrimping licences to general fishing licences.
Trawling is a method of fishing that involves pulling a fishing net, that is heavily weighted to keep it on the seafloor, through the water behind one or more boats.
The practice often damages the sea floor, destroys populations of baby fish and turtles and severely reducing marine life’s ability to reproduce.
The ban in Bahrain’s territorial waters was an urgent protection measure to help replenish the country’s precariously low fish stocks, the GDN previously reported.
Authorities only learned about the fraud when the banoosh was sold in auction in 2023, when it appeared that the vessel was still under mortgage from the bank as it had not been paid off by the defendant.
Since the boat was under sequester, it could not be transferred to the buyer. Court documents state that the boat has been under mortgage since 2007, placed as collateral by the defendant in exchange for a loan from the bank.
The man was charged with fabricating the registration document from scratch, using it as if it was genuine and receiving BD26,000 from the Finance and National Economy Ministry.
He had completely fabricated the banoosh’s registration paperwork, removing the bank’s name from the ownership certificate and plastering his own in its place.
Forensic specialists scanned the document by ultraviolet and infrared methods, and concluded that the security hologram did not match that of other certificates issued by the Coastguard.
A Supreme Council for Environment official earlier testified that the defendant applied for the scheme and affirmed, contrary to the truth, that he owned the boat.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
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