Liability of companies and persons for actions of officers and employees

(1) Every act or omission of any officer or employee of a person, or of the master or any member of the crew of a vessel that is owned, chartered or leased by the person for the purpose of engaging in fishing, shall be deemed for the purposes of this Act to be the act or omission of the person. (2) Subject to sub-section (3), any defence specified in section 65 (2) of this Act in relation to a prosecution under this Act is available to a person only to the extent that it can be proved in respect of the officer, employee, master, or crew member in relation to whose act or omission the prosecution is brought. Fisheries Resources [CAP. 210 77 (3) A defence specified in section 65(2) is available to a person prosecuted in respect of the act or omission of a person referred to in sub-section (1) if the person satisfies the Court that, having regard to– (a) any likely or possible benefit or detriment arising to the person from the act or omission in respect of which the prosecution is brought if the alleged had remained undetected; (b) the purpose or motive of the person whose act or omission it was; (c) the relationship between the person and the person whose act or omission it was, or between the person and a person appearing or likely to benefit from the alleged offence; (d) where the person is a body corporate, whether or not a person responsible for or closely associated with the management of the body corporate appears to have benefited from the act or omission, or would have been likely to so benefit if the alleged offence had remained undetected; and (e) any action taken by the person, or, where the person is a body corporate, by a person responsible for its management, once aware of the act or omission, in respect of the person whose act or omission it was or a person appearing or likely to benefit from the alleged it would be in the interests of justice to allow the person the benefit of any defence provided for in section 65(2). 78 Fisheries Resources