Following conviction for the offence of contravening professional diligence, Douglas Hubble, a door-to-door fish salesman, was sentenced on 1 October 2021 by Mr Recorder Makepeace QC at Teesside Crown Court to 8 months’ immediate imprisonment and a 7 year Criminal Behaviour Order preventing him from all unsolicited doorstep selling. On nine separate occasions, the commercial practices of Mr Hubble, and his workers, mirrored those of other convicted fish sellers from the Northeast region that have previously been prosecuted by Cameron Crowe and Sabrina Goodchild. They included: 1. targeting elderly and vulnerable consumers; 2. supplying excess quantities of fish, often more than was ordered or required by consumers; 3. supplying poor quality fish; 4. mis-describing the fish and failing to label the fish; 5. failing to identify the price of the fish in advance of it being loaded into freezers and 6. entering into consumers’ homes uninvited, thereby pressuring them into a sale. Mr Recorder Makepeace QC resisted the Defence submissions that the custodial sentence should be suspended. He considered that suspension was not open to him as Mr Hubble’s offending had continued after repeated warnings, arrest and interview, and he had demonstrated no remorse for his offending.
The fifth in a series of successful door-to-door fish-selling prosecutions, Sabrina Goodchild, acting as sole counsel, prosecuted the case