The owner of a Yukon a mining company received a $5,000 penalty Tuesday after failing to report that he killed four bears at his mining camp in central Yukon last summer.

Johannes Botes pleaded guilty to one charge under the Wildlife Act for failing to report the unauthorized killing of wildlife.

Justice of the peace Sharman Morrison accepted the joint submission from the Crown and defence, which included the $5,000 fine and a 10-month probation order.

Botes is the owner of JOPEBO Mining Inc., and operates a placer mine — a small scale mine that extracts minerals from stream beds — 60 kilometres west of Carmacks.

Botes appeared in court by video call from Namibia, where he resides with his family, and provided a statement expressing his regret for what happened last summer.

The court heard an agreed statement of facts, outlining the events that led to Botes shooting the bears and the subsequent investigation by conservation officers.

Last summer, Botes had been having issues with bears coming to his camp and accessing garbage, the statement of facts said.

On July 24, conservation officers received a report about one such incident, but Botes informed them that he scared the bear away with rubber bullets, it said.

The officers told him to contact their tip line if any other bear-human conflicts arose, it added.

A day later, while Botes was at the camp, the cook “came running to him” and told him that there was a bear in the camp, the document said.

Botes took his shotgun and found a black bear female, sow, with three cubs.

The statement of facts said that Botes “froze” and not knowing what to do next, he first shot the sow and then the three cubs.

After shooting the female, the cubs were not coming toward Botes but were crawling over the female’s body, it added.

After shooting the bears, Botes buried them on-site and did not report it to conservation officers, the document said.

Conservation officers received a report about the incident three days later and began an investigation, it said.

When they visited Botes at his camp, it said he denied knowing anything about the incident, but eventually told officers what happened and cooperated during the investigation.

According to the Wildlife Act, a person can kill an animal without a hunting license in the Yukon in an emergency situation — where there is a threat to human life or property — but they must report it. Reporting these incidents allows conservation officers to potentially salvage the meat and hides of the animals.

The Crown acknowledged that although shooting the sow could be considered an emergency situation, the three cubs did not pose a risk to people at the camp. The cubs could have been moved to a different location or given a chance to bond with another bear, Crown counsel said.

However, the Crown did not charge Botes with the illegal killing of wildlife. It told the court there were mitigating factors, including Botes’ guilty plea and the fact that he appeared in court to express regret for his actions.

Botes told the court that being from Namibia he was unfamiliar with how to handle situations like the one that occurred last summer. He said at the time he felt his decision to shoot the bears was justified, but he now regrets that decision and is already taking steps to make sure it does not happen again, although he did not give any details.

“Immediately after [the shooting], we’ve started taking some measures to try and avoid any occurrence of this,” he told the court. “And we have received a lot of advice … and just being again familiarized with how we can we can change behavior in the camp.”

Botes must pay the $5,000 penalty to the Yukon Conservation Fund by Dec. 4, 2026.

Under the probation order he is required to provide all staff for the 2026 season with bear awareness training.

He also has to implement an attractant management plan and provide it to Yukon Conservation Officer Services by April 1. The plan must ensure organic waste is either stored inside an electric fence or in a bear-safe container and is regularly disposed of at a waste management facility.