Shannon Gray jailed over illegal seafood business, abalone trafficking
When Fisheries inspectors found a modified scuba tank with a secret compartment on a St Leonard man’s fishing boat, they uncovered the business he’d been running peddling illicit seafood.
A boat inspection led Fisheries officers to uncover a drug addict’s business peddling an “unprecedented” amount of black market seafood, a court has heard.
Shannon Gray, 36, appeared in the Geelong Magistrates Court on Wednesday and pleaded guilty to a litany of offences including trafficking a commercial quantity of abalone and operating an unlicensed seafood business.
The illicit fishmonger was convicted and jailed for six months by magistrate Gerard Bryant, to be followed by a 12-month community corrections order.
He was also fined $2000 and slapped with an indefinite fishing ban.
The sentence was double the jail time he received in 2017, when he was first busted trafficking a commercial quantity of abalone after selling about 24kg to undercover officers.
Barrister Christin Tom, prosecuting, told the court Gray’s vessel was inspected on September 10 last year and he was nabbed operating an unregistered boat, not wearing a lifejacket or carrying his marine licence.
Fisheries officers also found 131 scallops, above the daily fishing limit of 100, and an altered scuba tank that had been engineered to have a removable base and secret, hidden cavity.
The discovery prompted a raid on Gray’s home.
His mobile phone was seized, and despite Gray refusing to provide the PIN it was eventually unlocked.
The contents revealed that from August 25, 2023 to September 10, 2024, Gray had been operating an unlicensed seafood business under the alias Shannon Foitzik.
Gray peddled yabbies, octopus, scallops, abalone, snapper, mussels and King George whiting.
He sold fish, or offered to sell fish, on 46 occasions to 25 people, and also received fish for sale on other occasions.
He trafficked more than 121kg in abalone in nine transactions – more than 12 times the threshold for a commercial quantity.
Gray even sent a newspaper clipping about his 2017 conviction to one of the customers of his business, the court heard.
His barrister, Josh Cunningham, told the court that Gray had endured a disadvantaged and traumatic upbringing.
He left school after year eight, was exposed to alcohol at an early age and eventually developed a substance abuse issue.
Mr Cunningham told the court Gray’s illegal seafood business emerged out of “financial need” and to fund his ongoing drug habit.
Gray, who was currently homeless, had been previously diagnosed with ADHD, and the court heard a psychologist had diagnosed him with an adjustment disorder - although the court heard Gray had turned up intoxicated to his appointment with the psychologist.
Mr Tom told the court the prosecution had “difficulty understanding the link with drug use” and said Gray’s crimes demanded jail time.
“While his disadvantaged upbringing is relevant … the prosecution do not accept there is a nexus between it and the offending,” Mr Tom said.
Mr Tom submitted Gray’s business was “unprecedented” and far exceeded previous cases of abalone trafficking; others had appeared before the courts on the same charges but “not to this level of sale”.
Mr Bryant said he was prepared to accept that Gray “may well” have been motivated by his drug use, but he had created a market for illegal and illegally obtained seafood and “carried on with contemptuous disregard” for court orders.
Gray, who was supported in court by his mother, also pleaded guilty to unlawful assault after bashing and pistol-whipping a man with a gel-blaster in May last year.
The victim had gone to Gray’s St Leonards home with the imitation gun to confront him over rumours.
When he tried to pull the gun out, Gray put him in a chokehold and pushed him to the ground, before taking the gun, kicking the victim in the face and hitting him with the gel blaster.
Without a guilty plea, Gray would have faced 10 months jail.
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Originally published as Shannon Gray jailed over illegal seafood business, abalone trafficking
