Gold Coast’s Natsea cruise company pleads guilty to operating unregistered boat, fined $10,000
THE company behind Rivers Cruises Gold Coast has been fined $10,000 for operating an unregistered boat in The Broadwater.
Crime and Court
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A GOLD Coast cruise ship company has been fined $10,000 in the Southport Magistrates Court after pleading guilty to operating an unregistered boat in The Broadwater during April last year.
Natsea Pty Ltd — trading as Rivers Cruises Gold Coast — pleaded guilty through it’s director Natalie Hallert to five charges of operating a vessel without a certificate of operation this morning.
The charges came after the company’s boat, the MV Voyager, was inspected when it ran aground during a wedding reception cruise on April 17 last year.
The court heard the boat crossed The Broadwater channel and ran into shallow water at about 7pm, drowning out wedding speeches.
More than 80 passengers had to be evacuated into lifeboats and an investigation of the vessel the following day found the boat, which had been bought from another company in September 2014, had not been registered for five months.
An inspection of the vessel’s logbook found it had been operated without a license five times between April 4 and 17 last year and each entry was the subject of the charges.
The court was told the company’s director Natalie Hallert, who represented the company in court yesterday, was under a “mistaken belief” the boat was exempt from registration.
However, defence barrister Ben Strangman said Ms Hallert had attempted to pay the renewal but payments were not taken by electronic transfer and her staff later forgot to pay the registration.
Natsea was given one penalty of $10,000 for all the charges and had a conviction recorded.
The skipper of the boat on the evening it ran aground, Terrence Pearce, also fronted court this morning but had his matter adjourned until September 19 because he was unrepresented.
The maximum penalty for a company charged with operation a vessel without a certificate of operation is $10,800.
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