Paul Joy and Graeme Bossom are arguing the quotas are unfair

In January 2005, Paul Joy and Graeme Bossom paid �14,070 in fines and costs.

Their lawyers said 95% of the UK quota went to big producers - the real target of moves to protect white fish stocks.

The Hastings fishermen, whose boats are under 10 metres, want a ruling that the rules are illegal and disproportionate. The Appeal Court reserved judgement.

The pair make their living from inshore fishing in boats launched off the beach at Hastings.

They are in a very different league from the big fishing boats Nicholas Paines QC

Last year, Joy, 56, of Ashburnham Road, and Bossom, 42, of Edmund Road, pleaded guilty at Lewes Crown Court to breaching the Sea Fish Conservation Act.

Joy was fined �4,996 and Bossom was fined �4,074, and both were ordered to pay �2,500 in costs.

Their pleas followed a ruling by Judge Simon Coltart as a preliminary point of law that the strict conditions of their fishing licences did not contravene EU laws on fairness and proportionality.

'A tiny proportion'

On Friday, appeal judges heard that Bossom, over a four-year period, made an average annual net profit of �11,000, and in 2003, Joy made a net profit of about �12,500.

Lord Justice Gage, Mr Justice Forbes and Mrs Justice Cox heard that the fishermen and others like them took only a tiny proportion of the catch.

Nicholas Paines QC said: "They are motorboats, but not powerful, and they cannot be put out to sea in bad weather.

"They are in a very different league from the big fishing boats which account for the vast bulk of this country's fishing effort."

Lawyers for the two fishermen argued that UK regulations went against the EU's intentions in introducing quotas.