A Belgian fisherman has been fined £20,000 for fishing in Sussex waters.

His beam trawler was caught sailing inside the six-mile limit off the coast in breach of European laws.

Officers from the Sussex and the Kent and Essex sea fisheries committees chartered a boat to take them out on patrol on September 17.

The team caught sight of the trawler Nooitgedacht Z402, which was about a mile into the UK's fishery limits off Beachy Head, where no foreign trawlers are permitted to fish.

The team intercepted the vessel and escorted it to Shoreham harbour.

Their evidence, together with records from radar logs and computer data kept by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency at Dover, proved the vessel had been fishing illegally.

The Belgian fisheries authorities also provided evidence from the vessel's onboard satellite monitoring system.

Jan Ras, the skipper and part owner of the Belgian-registered trawler, appeared at Brighton Magistrates' Court on Friday last week.

He pleaded guilty to fishing inside the UK's six-mile coastline limit.

He was fined £20,000 and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £1,340.

The court ordered the vessel to be detained until payment of the fines.

The prosecution was brought by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.