A young fisherman who lied about his father being killed in a car crash, forcing the skipper to return to port, faces paying $170,000 back to his former employers.
Talley's Fisheries' Amaltal Columbia sailed from Port Nelson on December 18 last year, with crew member Tyler Stewart Stokes, for a planned five-week voyage.
But after four days at sea, Stokes, now aged 20, told the vessel's captain that his parents had been in a serious car crash and his father had been killed. His mother was in hospital in a serious condition, Stokes said.
Stokes' partner, Monique Carlaw, 22, confirmed the story to Talley's, which immediately arranged for the vessel to return to Lyttelton Harbour to offload Stokes and get a replacement crew member.