Friday, September 22, 2023

Thursday sentencing for Wainwright Marine official brings $310,000 in fines, community service


The final stage of the trial for Wainwright Marine coming from the tragedy of the sinking of the MV Ingenika in February of 2021 took place yesterday in Prince Rupert.

That as the sentencing portion of the long running trial process came to a conclusion.

The listing of the charges facing owner James Bates and Wainwright Marine on the Court calendar made  for over three pages of reading material for the 3PM session at the Court House.

click on images above to enlarge 

James Geoffrey Bates, who had earlier pleaded guilty to one of eight charges under the occupational health and safety provisions of the Workers Compensation Act, received word of his fate as part of the Thursday afternoon Session.

Judge Nina Purewal imposed a fine of $15,000 on Bates, because he failed to provide essential information, instruction, training, and supervision to the workers.

 In addition to the fine, Bates was also assigned 100 hours of community service. 

 Bates' company, Wainwright Marine, was also charged and pleaded guilty to three of the eight charges against it. The company was handed three fines amounting to $295,000. 

As we outlined last month, the remaining charges against Wainwright Marine had previously been dropped by the Crown. 

The February 2021 sinking of the tugboat claimed the lives of Captain Troy Pearson from Prince Rupert, 58, and deckhand Charley Cragg, 25 from the Vancouver area

A  third crew member, Prince Rupert's Zac Dolan, was rescued after an extensive search of the Gardner Canal area south of Kitimat, he was subsequently hospitalized for hypothermia and frostbite. 

A thorough recap of the Thursday events and a review of the two year period for the trial can be reviewed here.

More media notes on the sentencing process can be reviewed below:

BC tugboat owner and company fined $310K for fatal sinking that killed 2 workers 
Tugboat operator finally sentenced with $310,000 fine, more than two years after the fatal sinking of the Ingenika 
Tugboat sentence handed down (
audio)

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.






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