A Thames River boat owner repeatedly refused to register his vessel.

Trevor Cox, from Grainsborough Green in Abingdon, was convicted for failing to register his Zimalda which was moored at Wilsham Road.

Mr Cox’s 4.4 metre vessel had an attachment notice stuck to it in August 2022 and this urged him to comply with the law within 14 days.

Mr Cox pleaded guilty when he appeared at Oxford magistrates’ court on February 24 and will now have to pay multiple costs.

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He was fined £166 and will have to pay this on top of pay costs of £250, a victim surcharge of £66 and his outstanding boat registration fee of £92.94 for using the boat between January 1 and December 31.

Environment manager at the Environment Agency Colin Chiverton said: “We were as patient as we could be with Mr Cox who flat-out refused to pay a fee that goes straight towards the upkeep of our rivers to support navigation.

“If you don’t pay your car tax you get fined – it’s exactly the same with boats on the Thames.”

Under the law, it is a criminal offence to keep, use or let for hire an unregistered vessel on a waterway.

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Mr Chiverton warned boat users that his team were currently going along the river and checking boat registrations for 2023.

The Environment Agency wrote to Mr Cox a month after his first letter warning him that enforcement proceedings would begin unless he registered his boat immediately.

Mr Cox repeatedly refused to pay the fee, despite a Navigation Enforcement Officer even asking him to do so over the phone.

Boat registration fees allow the Environment Agency more than 600 miles of waterways across England.