An experienced hunting guide from Alberta who spent last summer working for a Yukon outfitter has been fined $10,000 for offences under the territory’s Wildlife Act.

Patrick Garrett, 39, pleaded guilty in territorial court this morning to the illegal hunting of a grizzly and a caribou and failing to prevent a contravention of the act.

Represented by defence lawyer Mike Reynolds, Garrett did not appear in court.

That’s because he was working at a remote site northern B.C. in order to pay off the fine, which was a joint submission by Reynolds and Crown prosecutor Lee Kirkpatrick.

“In 26 years, I’ve never made a mistake like this, and I’m truly embarrassed and ashamed it happened,” Garrett wrote in a statement Reynolds read aloud before Judge Murray Hinds.

Garrett was working last summer as a guide in the Tombstone Territorial Park area for one of the territory’s outfitters.

He’s an experienced hunter and guide and runs his own guiding business in Alberta.

Kirkpatrick said Garrett participated in the pre-season guiding talk which discusses Yukon rules and laws. One is that an outfitter can only have one person hunting with him or her at a time.

On Aug. 27, Garrett headed north on the Dempster Highway with two men. The plan was one of the men was just along for the ride, but he did a bring a gun.

(Reynolds said his client recalls the outfitter instructing him to bring both men out, while, according to the outfitter’s version of events, recounted by Kirkpatrick, they told Garrett if the second man brought a gun, he could not use it.)

The group spotted a grizzly bear off the highway, and the man assigned to Garrett shot and killed it.

Kirkpatrick said grizzly hunting is prohibited in an eight-kilometre corridor along the Dempster. This bear was less than one kilometre from the highway.

On the way back to camp, the men spotted a caribou. The second man shot at it, but missed.

Reynolds said that when Garrett arrived back at camp, the outfitter confronted him and told him he shouldn’t have had two men out with him, and that the grizzly killing was illegal because of its proximity to the highway.

He had “feelings of disbelief and a feeling like he was going to be sick to his stomach,” Reynolds said.

Garrett does not recall the pre-season guiding talk.

In the past, he had had poor, “almost ambiguous” communication with the outfitter.

“But as a guide, Mr. Garrett knows the ultimate blame and responsibility lies with him,” Reynolds said.

Hinds accepted the joint submission.

Garrett must pay $5,000 for the illegal grizzly hunting, $4,000 for the illegal caribou hunting and $1,000 for failing to prevent a contravention of the Wildlife Act.

He is prohibited from guiding in the Yukon for seven years, and must complete the Hunter Education and Ethics Development program before obtaining a guiding licence in the territory.

His fine will serve as a contribution to the Yukon Fish and Game Association.

As for the man who had been assigned to Garrett on that hunt, Kirkpatrick said the outfitter has offered him a return hunt, because he paid about $20,000 for the trip and his grizzly trophy was forfeited to the Yukon government.

Due to incorrect information provided to the Star, a story in Tuesday’s edition reported that James Colosimo killed a Dall sheep and a Stone sheep while on two hunts with James Richards in the Yukon.

In fact, Colosimo killed a Dall sheep on one of these hunts. He did not admit to killing the Stone sheep, only to being involved in its export.