Halifax, Nova Scotia — A Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge has more than doubled a fine imposed on a former autobody shop owner, who pleaded guilty to workplace safety violations that contributed to the death of an employee.
The court announced the decision Tuesday saying the sentence for one of the violations was “demonstrably unfit.”
On June 5, 2020, provincial court Judge Elizabeth Buckle issued more than $27, 000 in fines to Elie Phillip Hoyeck, owner and supervisor of now-shuttered Your Mechanic Auto Corner in Dartmouth, N.S., noting Hoyeck’s admitted safety violations demonstrated a “reckless disregard” or “deliberate indifference” to safety.
In addition to the fine Buckle also ordered Hoyeck to spend 25 hours making a garage safety video for his community service.
The incident occurred in September 2013, when Peter Kempton, a mechanic at Hoyeck’s shop was using an acetylene torch to remove a gas tank for a minivan. The tank ignited while Kempton was underneath the vehicle and he died of severe burns the day after.
Hoyeck pled guilty to three violations of Nova Scotia’s Occupational Health and Safety Act, where he admitted to the following: failing to ensure the safety of his workers, operating an uncertified car lift with safety mechanisms disabled and failing to have emergency response plans in place when working with hazardous materials.
Judge Elizbeth Buckle said the penalty “has to cause some pain in order to bring home the gravity of the offence, but it must not be crushing,” stating that “what would be a minor penalty to a large, lucrative business would be oppressive to an individual or small business.”
However, the Crown appealed the sentence, arguing that the judge had made errors in law that impacted the sentence for one of the violations.
In the new ruling, Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice John Bodurtha increased one of the fines from $5,000 to $40,000 and increased a victim fine surcharge from $750 to $6,000. Hoyeck was also ordered to do 100 hours of community service work instead of the previously assigned 25 and to follow through on a previous order to pay $10,000 to an education fund.
“I find this is a demonstrably unfit sentence for an offender whose ‘reckless disregard or deliberate indifference to legislative safety measures’ resulted in the death of his employee,” Bodurtha wrote in his decision.
Bodurtha said the original sentence failed to account for the 2011 increases to fines in the provincial Occupational Health and Safety Act. He noted that the previous sentence imposed $15,000 in fines, which is merely three percent of the maximum allowable fine of $500,000.
Bodurtha is giving Hoyeck four years to pay his fines and is giving him one year to complete his community service safety video.
