Australian diving firm fined over British tourist's death

A diving firm in Australia has been fined almost £100,000 after a British tourist died on her first ever dive off the coast of Queensland.

Bethany Farrell, 23, from Colchester in Essex, was found lying unresponsive on the sea floor after becoming separated from her friend and their diving instructor during an introductory dive at Blue Pearl Bay on 17 February 2015. She was unable to be revived and died at the scene.

An English literature graduate from Southampton University, she had just started a gap year.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

DL20 Trading Pty Ltd, which traded as Wings Diving Adventures, pleaded guilty to breaching its duties as a diving company, says the Brisbane Times. Magistrates fined it AUS$160,000 (£97,000) and ordered it to pay costs of around £650.

No criminal conviction was recorded.

A spokesman for Australia's Office of Industrial Relations said Farrell's family was "somewhat disappointed" there had not been a conviction, but were "content with the fine imposed".

He added that DL20 had entered an early guilty plea and had an "unblemished" history.

The Brisbane Times adds the company has ceased all scuba operations and made a "sincere apology".

It also reports that Farrell's family "made an emotional visit to Blue Pearl Bay over the weekend before flying back to the UK".

An inquest at Chelmsford Coroner's Court in October 2016 found "various failings in the way in which the diving activities were carried out".

It added that the company had failed to test the competency of first-time divers and not allowed them to practise with buoyancy devices, the BBC reported.