Nicholas Mouat pleads guilty to dangerously driving boat, killing diver

A Carrum Downs man who fatally ran over a spear fisherman while sounding for fish in 2019 will not be sent to prison.

A skipper who fatally struck a spear fisherman with his boat in Port Phillip Bay will not spend time behind bars, a court has heard.

Carrum Downs man Nicholas ‘Nick’ Mouat, 44, faced the Melbourne County Court on Tuesday to plead guilty to dangerous driving causing death over the tragedy three years ago.

Prosecutor Stephanie Clancy told the court Mouat had been driving his white motorboat, ‘Serendipity’, in waters near Mount Eliza on the morning of May 5, 2019.

Heading back from fishing in Woolley’s Reef, Mouat had been driving between five and eight knots as he approached two men freediving and spearfishing around 1pm.

Three fisherman witnessed what unfolded.

One recalled thinking the boat was going “way too close” to the divers.

Another thought the driver was a “d***head” who “could have killed someone” as he drove through the two orange dive buoys, used to signal divers are in the area.

At the same time one of the divers, Sayoon Hong, was swimming towards the surface when he heard the sound of an engine.

“As he broke the surface of the water he saw a vessel pass within one metre of him, close enough to see the bubbles from the vessel’s propeller,” Ms Clancy said.

“The vessel had passed through the middle of their dive buoys. He observed the vessel had been travelling quickly.”

Mr Hong saw the boat stop about 20-30 meters away before the caucasian male driver with the brown beard looked back towards him and waved his arms, before driving on towards Mornington.

Shortly afterwards the diver found his friend, Geunhee Park, “lying flat and unconscious on the bottom of the ocean”.

He swam down about five to seven meters to reach him and pulled him back to the surface, noting his friend had sustained a “serious head injury”.

A short time later the nearby fishermen heard cries for help and saw one of the divers holding another in his arms.

The fishermen drove over and pulled the divers on board their boat, when it became apparent the unresponsive Mr Park had a deep laceration through his cheek, eye and forehead.

First aid and CPR were commenced but the 29-year-old Korean born man was declared dead by paramedics after being pulled onto Frankston pier.

Police began searching for the boat based on the description matching that of witnesses, with police tasked to obtain details of all the boats at surrounding ramps.

The police airwing captured Mouat travelling north about 1.44pm, while his trailer was seen parked at the Patterson River Boat Ramp, or Launching Way.

The court was told Mouat spoke to a friend about a diver being hit by a boat later that afternoon and that he was in the area but “didn’t feel anything on the boat”.

The following morning he turned himself into police. He told them he was in the area at the time of the incident and had driven through dive flags without noticing them “until it was too late” as he was sounding for fish.

He said he slowed down and waved his hand at the diver to say ‘sorry’ before continuing on, claiming he did not know anything had happened until he saw the news the following morning.

He then felt “sick” not knowing if he “did or didn’t hit that person”.

Ms Clancy said Mouat, who had been a regular boat user and frequently fished in Port Phillip Bay, admitted to knowing he needed to stay 100 meters away from dive markers.

She said the prosecution case was that he failed to keep a proper lookout for the divers in an area he knew was “notorious” for them.

Judge Douglas Trapnell was handed two victim impact statements – one from the victim’s wife and the other from his father – but these were not read aloud to the court.

The court heard Mouat had also been facing a charge of culpable driving causing death but that charge was dropped earlier this month when he agreed to plead guilty to the lesser charge of dangerous driving causing death earlier this year following a sentence indication.

During this indication judge Trapnell said he would not send Mouat to prison but would require him to undertake a community corrections order with unpaid community work.

Mouat, who is in the community, will return to court for an official sentence next month.