A FISHERMAN who worked the cockle beds of Morecambe Bay told a jury how he was approached by the alleged gangmaster' of the Chinese cocklers who died in the cockling tragedy and asked if he would buy cockles from him.
Wayne Miller, from Wales, who cockled at various locations around the Bay, including Aldingham, Hest Bank and Flookburgh, told Preston Crown Court how he agreed to buy the cockles and spoke of his working relationship with Lin Liang Ren from the summer of 2003.
A jury was told that Mr Miller paid Lin £20 per 40kg bag over a period of four months while still retaining his own team of cocklers from Colwyn Bay.
He said the only equipment he provided the Chinese with were the empty bags to collect the cockles but he also bought Ren's team of about 20 to 30 men a set of head torches to use as the days became shorter.
He described Lin as the "main leader" of the Chinese group and said there was "no problem" with the way in which he got his men off the beach before the tide came in.
The working relationship between Lin and Mr Miller came to an end in November because the beds were running out of cockles and it was impossible to find work for 30 men, the court heard.
On the night of the tragedy on February 4, 2004, Mr Miller had told his men not to go cockling.
"We left the day before on the Wednesday night," he said.
"We left because a storm was due in and I let the lads know we would be back on Friday to let the storm blow over."
Lin Liang Ren, 29, from Liverpool, denies 21 counts of manslaughter. He also denies perverting the course of justice and facilitation. His 20-year-old girlfriend at the time, Zhao Xiao Qing, denies perverting the course of justice and facilitation. Ren's cousin Lin Mu Yong, 31, also from Liverpool, denies facilitation.
Father and son David Eden, 61, and David Eden, 33, both from Merseyside, the owners of Liverpool Bay Fishing company, also deny a charge of facilitation.
Earlier, the court heard how Chinese cocklers involved in the tragedy were arrested on suspicion of being illegal immigrants and released without charge, just months before the fateful night of events on Warton Sands, following a cockling trip to Crammond Beach in Edinburgh.
When police arrived at the beach on October 13, 2003, they were greeted by dozens of bags of cockles in the car park.
Four British men were spoken to by police before their attention was drawn to a van containing Chinese people understood to be working for the British men.
A total of 14 cocklers, including two of the defendants Lin Liang Ren and Zhao Xiao Qing, who had more than £4,000 in cash on her - were all arrested and released.
PC Deborah King, one of the officers who made the arrests, said she was left feeling frustrated because it appeared the immigration service did not want much to do with the Chinese cocklers.
Some of the Chinese were "in the system" seeking asylum, some were here legally and said they were sight-seeing, while some had arrived in the UK just days earlier and claimed asylum on arrest, the jury was told.
Trial continues...
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