Environment Agency v Gibbs and another [2016] EWHC 843 (Admin), [2016] All ER (D) 106 (Apr)
The Divisional Court dismissed the appellant Environment Agency’s appeal against the Crown Court’s decision, allowing the respondent houseboat owners’ appeals against their convictions for keeping an unregistered vessel on a waterway. A “vessel”, under Art 2 of the Environment Agency (Inland Waterways) Order 2010 (SI 2010/699), was something “constructed or used” either to “carry” people or things, or to be “propelled or moved” across or through the water and the houseboats were not “vessels”.
