Skipper admits failure to provide food and rest for foreign seamen

A skipper for a Scottish fishing company embroiled in modern slavery allegations has admitted failing to provide adequate food and rest for foreign seamen.

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

Skipper Tom Nicholson Jr, 38, pled guilty at Hamilton Sheriff Court to an offence under maritime health and safety regulations, following three days of evidence from migrant fishermen.

The offence took place in 2017 while Nicholson worked for his father's business, TN Trawlers.

In 2024, a BBC Scotland documentary revealed allegations of modern slavery against the company.

Nicholson admitted "instructing workers to perform excessive and continuous hours at work" and failing to "allow sufficient rest periods".

Five Ghanian men who worked on the vessel were also not provided with adequate food or training and safety instructions.

Over three days, the jury heard from two fishermen before the accused pled guilty.

Augustus Mensah and Joshua Amissah gave evidence through an interpreter.

Augustus Mensah – who featured in the BBC documentary Slavery at Sea - told the court he had arrived to work for the company in September 2017.

During his time with the company, he said he switched between three boats in the English Channel, including the Sea Lady.

While aboard under the command of Nicholson, he said that he and his fellow Ghanaians worked round the clock and had "no rest", instead devising a "secret rota" that allowed them to sleep in short shifts.

Mensah told the court: "While the harvest was up, it took two hours to sort. Then there's another cast [of the dredges].

"By the time you had sorted the harvest, there is another one coming up.

"It was continuous until the day we returned back to shore."

The skipper, he said, kept separate food but provided other items such as potatoes, bananas, biscuits.

Mensah added: "The food that would be provided lasted up to three days… On the fourth or fifth day there was nothing.

"No way are you to touch [the skipper's food]… He gave an order not to touch it."

He said the crew resorted to eating octopus and fish caught in the harvest.

When asked whether he was told to take those, he said: "It was for our own survival."

He added: "It impacted my health, my mental health… My body deteriorated and I almost died on board."

In December 2017, Mensah suffered a head injury while aboard the Sea Lady and was taken to shore at Portsmouth, where he later complained to police.

His compatriot, Joshua Amissah, worked with the company from April until December 2017 and also discussed the lack of training aboard the Sea Lady.

He told the court: "As soon as we got there, he said we should just get to work… He [Tom Jr] said there was no time and that we needed to go hunt for scallops."

Amissah described the work as "non-stop", adding: "It kept coming. There was no rest during the trip."

Discussing the sleeping shifts, he later added: "There was no sleep. This went on until some time in November, and we said if this went on, we would die.

"So we devised a plan so that when he [Tom Jr] goes to sleep after the net has been cast, we would find a way to get some sleep."

Fiscal depute Jacqueline Smyth asked Amissah whether he confronted Nicholson about the lack of rest.

Amissah said: "He told me that I was a slave.

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

Tom Nicholson Jr is the son Thomas Nicholson, the owner of TN Trawlers.

In 2024, the BBC revealed how his company had been at the centre of a decade-long investigation into human trafficking allegations.

The BBC identified 35 men who worked for TN Trawlers and were later identified by the Home Office as victims of modern slavery.

The Disclosure and File on 4 production 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 denied any allegation of modern slavery or human trafficking and said its workers were well-treated and well-paid.

Tom Nicholson Jr will return to court for sentencing in July.