A senior director of a canal boat company has today been ordered to pay £3,600 in fines and costs after pleading guilty to operating passenger vessels in North Yorkshire without valid passenger certificates. Ian Clarke, and the company Pennine Cruisers Ltd, pleaded guilty to four charges. anal boats ‘Sam’ and ‘Leo’ operate on a section of the Leeds to Liverpool canal at Skipton and are authorised to carry no more than 12 passengers. Carrying more than 12 passengers would require the vessels to be surveyed and issued with passenger certificates if they met the required safety standards. On 31 July 2013 a Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) surveyor saw ‘Leo’ being operated with 13 passengers on board and the company was spoken to.
