Fishing boss fined for breaching human trafficking court order

A fishing trawler boss linked to a series of modern slavery allegations has been fined £2,700after breaching a human trafficking court order.

Thomas Nicholson, 63, is understood to be the first person in Scotland to receive and breach a Trafficking and Exploitation Risk Order (TERO).

Nicholson - who remains under investigation for trafficking - was given the order by Dumfries Sheriff Court to prevent him moving vessels without providing crew details.

In 2024 his firm TN Trawlers - based in Annan, Dumfries and Galloway - was the subject of a BBC Scotland and Radio 4 investigation into claims of mistreatment of foreign workers.

BBC Scotland's Disclosure's programme, Slavery At Sea, identified 35 men who worked on the fleet of scallop trawlers and went on to be recognised by the UK Home Office as victims of modern slavery.

Nicholson pled guilty last month to breaching the order.

Dumfries sheriff Euan Cameron said his offence was at the "lower end" of harm and fined him £2,700 with a £175 victim surcharge.

The penalty comes just three days after his son, Tom Jr, pled guilty to failing to provide adequate food and rest to five Ghanaian fishermen in 2017.

Nicholson had been served with the two-year TERO in October 2022 while police investigated claims of human trafficking and modern slavery.

It meant Nicholson had to provide officials from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) with documents and employee details of any non-European crewmen before certain vessels of his fleet could set sail.

The order also prevented him from having any direct or indirect dealings with a number of other boats run by his company.

TEROs were introduced as part of the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act in 2015.

When authorities believe there may be a risk of trafficking or exploitation, police can apply for the order.

Unlike a Trafficking and Exploitation Prevention Order (TEPO), an individual does not need to have an existing trafficking conviction before being served with a TERO.

Fiscal depute David Orr said that Nicholson, from Newbie, near Annan, had been the focus of Operation Epazote, a Home Office inquiry into human trafficking at TN Trawlers.

The court heard that Nicholson breached an interim version of the TERO by failing to inform the authorities that he had moved one of his vessels, the Olivia Jean, from a port in the Netherlands to Buckie, Moray, in October 2022.

Before sailing he also did not provide details of any non-European Economic Area (EEA) staff aboard.

Defence solicitor Paul Anderson said the offence had been a "genuine mistake" and that no foreign crewmen were aboard.

He said: "This was a return from port where the boat was being serviced in Holland. It was not a fishing trip."

The solicitor said that Nicholson was now retired and "no longer has any boats and no longer employs fishing staff".

Nicholson made no comment as he left Dumfries Sheriff Court.

The BBC were unable to report on his guilty plea last month due to reporting restrictions related to the criminal case involving his son, Tom Jr.

At Hamilton Sheriff Court last week, the 38-year-old pled guilty to failing to provide adequate food, rest or training to five workers from Ghana while he was skipper of the Sea Lady vessel in 2017.

Fishermen said they were worked round the clock and treated "like slaves" aboard the scallop dredger, while struggling to find enough food to eat.

The court heard the men resorted to a "secret rota" of sleeping in shifts and eating animals from the vessel's catch in order to survive.

Augustus Mensah - who was interviewed for the BBC's Slavery At Sea documentary in 2024 - told court that his ordeal ended when he suffered a head injury and was taken to shore for treatment.

He and his compatriots were taken away by police shortly after.

Another victim, Joshua Amissah, told court that he confronted Tom Jr about the lack of rest.

Amissah said: "He said that his father told him that any black person he worked with, he must treat that person as a slave."

Tom Jr will return to court to be sentenced in July.

TN Trawlers had been at the centre of a decade-long investigation into human trafficking allegations.

The BBC's Disclosure and File on 4 investigation featured contributions from former workers from the Philippines, Ghana and India who alleged they had been mistreated by the company.

In October 2024, another group of fishermen from Ghana were awarded £20,000 each in compensation by the UK government.

The crew were rescued in 2020 from the scallop-trawler Olivia Jean, also owned by TN Trawlers.

TN Trawlers had denied any allegation of modern slavery or human trafficking and said its workers were well-treated and well-paid.