Should use some of the fine to purchase a vinyl wrap that goes along the hull with a photo and name of the offender too.

 Lol never Grant, always a good supply of knob jockies out there. 

 Fisheries web site is not coming up just now, keeps timing out.

If you touch other peoples gear this is what we will do to you,yeeeah.

After the last thieving bastard got himself spread all over the social media you would think the message would have got through to these type of people, but I guess the old saying nah they will never catch me is still alive.

Well you knuckle headed bastards it did happen to you.

 2 more pole smokers off the water good on ya fisheries keep up the good work!

 As someone suggested above, a vinyl wrap with wording along the lines of "I am a thieving dog and probably shouldn't be trusted around children" or words to that effect. The offender would have to pay for the wrap, of course. But there would be a very, very  heavy fine associated with any removal or alteration of said wrap, including by any possible buyer. This would be trackable by rego transfer. So the bastard is stuck with it cluttering up his driveway/ shed, can't use it or sell it. This could have a set term attached, say, 2 years?

Nasty enough?

 I reckon just raffle the boats and gear off. A win win imo, money for fisheries coffers and someone walks away with a very cheap boat. 

 If it's had itself plastered all over FB as being involved in pot theft, I wouldn't go anywhere near it. I suspect it wouldn't recieve much of a price. And the money would probably go to dodgy research "confirming" that Whalers of all types are endangered and in need of protection  I'd rather just hang that metaphorical sign around the offenders' neck for a while, can't hide behind anonymity.

 And no guarantee it wouldn't just go into Consolidated Revenue, and you know what that means. Or Fisheries could spend it sending officers around to harass blokes who were stupid enough to post pics of a big catch'n release bronzie, threatening them with prosecution , as happened a while back. Or try to send blokes broke with their unlimited resources by dragging them through the courts with stupid interpretations of the undersize release rule, as also happened recently. I seem to recall Fisheries weren't quite so popular  then, were they. 

We are all loving it when they catch pot thieves, but you need to look at the bigger picture. I think some peoples' memories are a bit short, or selective. 

A couple of mates of mine had their 4 pots stolen out from the Three Sisters Warnbro Sound some time over the weekend. Bigger penalties are needed to stop this shit.

Whilst bagging our 16 crays today on scuba I found 2 pots with cut ropes that were no doubt presumed 'stolen'. 

 ID Numb . Welded onto plates. Neck going into pots. Main frame. Front top & bottom. Same on back. Removable door. Bait lids. Also done some off side slates. Die grinder. Got 12 I'd points on every pot. Peters mine also my boys. Would be way to hard to remove them all. Especially ones welded onto weights. Also I have no floating rope. I have lead 20 feet down on main line. Holds floats straight up and down any excess rope under water. No chance on prop cutting float off. Will it work ? Unsure.

Dunno how much floating rope..could of been an issue but 4 gone all close to each other.. Just put $800 into a pot winch..didn't get to use it.

 Pot winches most of issue. Makes them easy . Way to easy. 

 They could use some of the cash to employ extra officer's down this way. Fished from the same boat ramp for 35 yrs never seen one at the ramp , bar 1 vollie a few years ago. Asked them once what would be the result if i reported an incident over a weekend and was told they don't work weekends . Go figure.