Bay of Plenty mooring owners are claiming the Bay of Plenty Regional Council owes them tens of thousands of dollars in illegally levied mooring inspection fees.

Armed with a legal opinion, a group of Eastern Bay of Plenty mooring owners are seeking the return of about $1000 per mooring owner.

Mooring owners are seeking payment from the Bay of Plenty Regional Council.

The charges were imposed while Nick Gear of Sea Quest Marine Ltd was the regional council's sole mooring contractor in the Bay of Plenty, responsible for the inspection every two years of the 499 registered swing moorings in the Eastern and Western bay of Plenty.

'Our legal opinion is that Nick Gear had to undertake all the mooring inspections and work himself,” says spokesman for the Eastern Bay Swing Mooring group, Neville Harris.

'The approval refers to Nick Gear as the contractor, not his company Sea Quest Marine Ltd, which means Gear had to personally inspect all 499 swing moorings in the harbours every two years.

'In the Eastern Bay of Plenty, there were at least three inspections carried out by Nick Gear's employees. In our opinion these inspections are invalid and the regional council owes mooring owners the fees paid. That's about $1000 per mooring owner.”

Insurance companies that may have paid out on what appeared to be valid moorings may also require their money back from the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, says Neville.

'The argument with regional council only concerns the mooring inspections, not the articles that were replaced on advice of the mooring contractor's employees – when they may not have had to be replaced.”

'If this is a situation that affects your mooring, that is it was inspected by someone other than Nick Gear of Sea Quest Marine Ltd, then the regional council also owes you for the inspection fees you paid for inspections that were not carried out by the contractor himself, as legally required.”

Neville's advising affected mooring owners to email the regional council chairman Doug Leeder, douglas.leeder@boprc.govt.nz and tell him you require to be reimbursed for a problem that was created by a previous regional harbour master. And send a copy to easternbayswingmooringgroup@yahoo.com

'You should also inform all the other swing mooring owners you know about this issue,” says Neville.

The mooring owners previously took their concerns to a regional council meeting held in Tauranga in June 2013.

They expressed concerns that Nick Gear was employing workers to carry out mooring inspections and maintenance all across the Bay of Plenty.

Because of allegations that Nick Gear was substituting the stipulated Australian PWB chain with cheaper Chinese chain, the regional council hired a private investigator to look into the allegation.

After a six month investigation the regional council stated the contactor did not breach any regulations and had been using the approved chain. Nick Gear allowed his certification to lapse in January 2014.

Regional harbourmaster Carl Magazinovic was placed ‘on leave' while the ongoing independent investigation into the region's moorings is undertaken. Carl resigned on December 2, 2013.

Tauranga Harbourmaster Jennifer Roberts resigned in July 2014, over what was believed to be over issues that have arose during the recruitment process for Carl's replacement.

Jennifer Roberts was at that time the only harbourmaster in New Zealand with an international harbourmaster's qualification, a diploma from the Lloyds Maritime Academy.

When contacted about the allegations from the Eastern Bay Swing Mooring group, BOPRC communications advisor Sue Ellen Craig says she has not seen any legal opinion.

Neville says a copy of the opinion, prepared by Tauranga lawyers Sharp Tudhope, was presented to regional council chairman Doug Leeder in July last year.