Barred: The Polish anglers who don’t let any get away

Eastern Europeans have been banned from fishing at a lake – after the site owner claimed they were stealing his stock.

Farmer Billy Evans charges anglers £7 a day at his four-acre lake, which is stocked with thousands of pounds worth of carp, tench, roach and bream.

Anglers are permitted to keep two of the fish they catch per day from open waters – but
many private fisheries, such as Mr Evans’s, bar them from taking any.

Mr Evans, 71, of Field Farm Fisheries in Launton, Oxfordshire, said that there are normally 30,000 fish in his lake but that hundreds have been stolen by eastern European anglers.

A month ago he erected a large hand-made sign reading: ‘No Polish or Eastern Europe fishers allowed.’ Since then he claims that he has not caught anybody stealing his stock.

He said: ‘I’ve found groups of Poles bagging up the fish. I’ve been catching them red-handed and have seen them on CCTV leaving with bags of fish.

‘I’ve also caught them using barbed hooks, which tear the fish’s mouth when removed
and can kill them.

‘The eastern Europeans tend to fish in groups, not alone, and I caught one group which had four carrier bags full of half-dead fish. I told them it wasn’t allowed and one guy threatened me.

‘That was a month ago, and it was then I decided to ban them. Since then they haven’t been back and I’ve not seen anybody trying to steal from me.’

An Environment Agency spokesman said anyone stealing fish could be prosecuted.

But Thames Valley Police said no thefts from Mr Evans’s lake had been reported.

A spokesman for the Equality and Human Rights Commission said: ‘It is unlawful to be refused a service – or not to be given the same standard of service extended to others – on grounds of race.’

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