Man found, jailed after fatal boating accident

Liam Kane. Photo / File / Bay of Plenty Times

A man who disappeared after a fatal boating accident in Tauranga has been arrested and appeared in court.

Police located and arrested Liam Kane, 22, in Ngatai Road, Tauranga late on November 9.

Kane was one of four people on board a dinghy when it capsized off Omokoroa on the evening of October 16.

Kane made it to shore and raised the alarm but then disappeared.

The body of Tauranga man Shaun Hogarth, 22, was discovered on the western side of Omokoroa Peninsula, nine days after the accident.

The two other men on board the boat, Dylan Baxter 25, and Samuel Butler, 22, have been charged with theft of a boat.

Kane appeared in Tauranga District Court yesterday.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of breaching home detention, theft of the dinghy involved in the fatal accident and an unrelated assault.

For those offences and the original drug offence, for which he had been initially granted home detention, he was sentenced to a total of 19 months' imprisonment.