Couple fined $100K for causing 2013 landslide into creek

A West Vancouver couple has been fined $100,000 by a provincial court judgefor causing a landslide intoan environmentally-sensitive creek.

"It's asignificant fine but it'sprobablyappropriatefor the nature of this transgressionof our bylaws,"said West Vancouver spokesman Jeff McDonald.

The slide occurred in 2013 whenMohammadrezaMorshedian andhis wifeSeyedehShahrbanooJananiwere working on their home in the British Properties and dumping fill in their backyardwithout a permit.

"The fill was unstable and there was a lot of it on a steep slopeand some of the fill fell into the creek," McDonald said.

Most bylaw infractions occur when people are unaware of them, he said, but in this case the dumping continuedafter bylaw officers visited the couple and issued a stopwork order.

"What these homeowners did was a pretty flagrant violation of bylaws," said McDonald.

He said it's rare for the district to take a bylaw infraction to this level most are resolved through mediation.

"We're pleased with it becauseit sends a really strong message that peopleneed to respect bylaws and need to respectstopwork orders when they're issued."