Dad faces jail for frozen fish prank

A German couple face jail for poaching after they attached a frozen fish to a children's fishing line as a joke.

Alexander Donninger and his wife Stefanie were accused of poaching after the stunt during a family holiday in the Austrian Tyrol.

The couple, who were with their twins Enya and Arthur, aged seven, said they had purchased the £2 frozen trout the previous day.

They say it was already gutted and ready to cook - and that they only attached it to the twins' fishing line for a bit of fun.

But a local who spotted the family at the river at Kufstein called police and they arrested the couple for illegal fishing.

A police spokesman said: "Regardless of whether he had a frozen fish on the line or not it is illegal to have a rod in the water without a licence."

Mr Donninger, 42, of Kiefersfelden, said: "What really annoyed me was the man who reported this. He came up to me and was talking to me and he knew we were using a frozen fish.

"Because I didn't have a licence he called police but he didn't say anything at the time otherwise it could have been speedily settled."

The father could face up to six months in prison if convicted after the man that owned the river insisted that there was no way of proving whether it was a frozen fish or not.

Lawyer Taddaeus Schaefer, defending, said: "It is madness that such a small offence with a fish worth no more than a few euros is even coming to court. It is like we are living in the mediaeval ages again."