A fisherman has been fined for taking sea trout without a licence after he was filmed with a secret riverbank camera.

The Environment Agency set up the camera to catch Richard Strupinski as he illegally took the fish from Hardham Weir on the River Rother, near Pulborough.

The footage showed Strupinski fishing at the spot on three consecutive evenings while an unknown female appeared to act as a lookout.

Strupinski, of Sullington Close, Storrington, admitted to Environment Agency officials that he caught sea trout, but said he had put them back into the water.

He said he took away just one fish which had been injured by his hook and later threw it away rather than eating it.

Strupinski pleaded guilty by post to fishing without a licence and taking migratory trout from a fish pass, Horsham magistrates heard.

The court fined him a total of £150 and ordered him to pay £75 costs.

Environment Agency fisheries officer Marc Thain said: "To fish without a licence is to rob both the environment and those anglers who buy licences and fish legally.

"Worse still, taking sea trout at the point where they are most vulnerable - passing through a fish pass on the way to their spawning grounds - is damaging to future fish stocks and can hardly be called sporting."

A full licence for salmon and sea trout costs £58, an eight-day licence £16.50 and a one-day licence £5.50.