Captain in charge of fertiliser ship five times the alcohol limit

A captain in charge of a 37,000-tonne fertiliser carrier has been fined $3000 for operating the vessel while almost five times the alcohol limit.

Pramod Kumar, 36, pleaded guilty to a charge of operating a ship with excess breath alcohol when he appeared in the Tauranga District Court yesterday — a breach under the Maritime Transport Act that attracts a maximum sentence of one year’s prison and $10,000 fine.

Kumar has become the first seafarer in New Zealand to be charged and fined with operating a vessel with excess breath alcohol under a law introduced since the Rena container ship’s grounding.

The court was told that the African Harrier arrived in Tauranga at 2am on Friday from Vancouver to unload bags of fertiliser.

At that stage Kumar had been at sea 47 days, and left the ship on Saturday, but was called back on Sunday because unloading had finished early, duty solicitor Cate Anderson told Judge Wolff.

About 10am on Sunday, Kumar, who was the designated master of the ship, and a port staff member and the pilot, were in the final stages of preparation for the ship’s departure to Marsden Point, carrying 80 bags of fertiliser.

During the preparations the pilot boarded the ship, entered the bridge and had a discussion with Kumar, who confirmed he was the ship’s master pending its departure.

The pilot noticed Kumar was showing signs of intoxication and immediately suspended the departure and contacted Maritime New Zealand, which boarded the ship and contacted police. An evidential breath test showed Kumar’s breath contained 1229 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath — 4.9 times the legal limit of 250 micrograms. Kumar told police he was sorry. His lawyer, Nicholas Dutch, said Kumar accepted there were others on board also qualified to be in charge and he should have stayed in bed.

Judge Robert Wolff told Kumar the consequences of his offending were significant in terms of potential risk to the other 22 crew, the public and there were also serious environment concerns because of the type of material the ship was carrying.

Judge Wolff took into account the fact that Kumar had no criminal history and had made a prompt guilty plea.

The judge was told the fine and $130 court costs would be paid immediately as Kumar was expected to fly to Mumbai last night.

The ship’s owner, MUR Shipping, would be undertaking a review with Kumar, and it was uncertain whether he would retain his employment, Mr Dutch said.