Joanne Lewis
Deckhand - employed by Seacat Services Ltd
Meet Joanne Lewis of The Chine, Gosport, Hampshire, PO13 0ZW.
Joanne has worked for Seacat for about 2 years, She has caused friction within all crews she works by being outspoken to all staff including HM Border Force personnel. She has accused staff of various forms of bullying and sexual harassment just to get her way. A member of the crew has even said its her way or no way. This has lead to the crew agreeing to work with her on a professional basis but beyond that they just want to stay away from her. They refuse to talk to her out of working hours which she also pulled the bullying card.
The friction has lead to a crew working without her for a few weeks due to being suspended, The crew worked a person down which they worked better and more efficient without her a Border Force person said. upon her return to work, yep you guessed it. it all started again.
Being in an open relationship with her husband she has been sleeping around with members of staff from Border Force and the crew which also included the skipper of Volunteer, the crews believe. This is why she could demand who she would work with as they to were other relationships including been married.
Scenario one: a more experienced member of Seacat staff was required to carry out training with staff on her vessel, she demand they leave the vessel or she would and so the trainer left the vessel, he couldn't carry out the required training.
With her up and down moods when not getting her way it leaves the crew on edge just waiting for the next outburst.
Scenario two: She even had a physical altercation with a crew member in their accommodation, when this was reported to Seacat it was investigated but two of the staff involved reported it never happened, one of which was the crew member directly involved.
Richard, Grant why would you lie about this ? We think Joanne has something on you. Why else would you lie and say it didn't happen. Yes we know you are happy the incident was resolved between you both but you still don't lie in an internal investigation carried out by Seacat. This lead to the witnesses that said it happen when asked during the investigation being investigated them self's, being accused for fabricating lies about Joanne causing stress to all members of the crew, one of which was signed off work with stress.
Seacat, What are you playing at ?
Richard, Grant. We would like to hear your side of this if you would like to get in touch.
Staff that have work / worked along side her believe she's a classic narcissist.
This has lead to crews of the Seacat vessels being split up in the hope things will settle down. We all know a Leopard can't change its spots.
Update ---
During working hours on Volunteer she admitted to wanting to kill herself this is what led to her suspension. After just a few weeks off she was back to work. Did her doctor / psychiatrist see through her clam of being suicidal or work some sort of magic. During her return back to work she still continued phone appointments with her doctor / psychiatrist.
We have heard Joanne Lewis is now working on Border Force Defender and still creating problems, whatever vessel she is on drama follows.
Seacat have / had supported her during this period but surely someone with this sort of state of mine shouldn't be doing this type of employment. Now we start to understand why crew are reluctant to work with her.
Mark West
Decorated Military Service - HM Forces, Discharged with exemplary service.
Address: Unknown, no recent records found
One ex-crew member is Mark he has undisclosed military service which we did not dwell on. We managed to catch up with him through investigating persistence and a bit of luck as he is due to leave the country in the next few days, going back to Turkey.
Here is what he had to say about the migrant situation and working with Seacat alongside Border Force.
Working for Seacat was a great opportunity, working in the windfarm industry in Scotland and Harwich. They, carry out and follow all necessary Health and Safety training. It was a great environment to work in, I would love the opportunity to do it again if it come my way.
Some formal questions followed;
Q: Other than working in the windfarm industry we know you have also worked in Ramsgate. What was that like and could you tell us what you did?
A: Yes, I did work in Ramsgate for approximately eight months on the Border Force vessels. It opened my eyes to the whole illegal migration operation of migrants. It left me trying to understand international Maritime Law, why are the boats that have come from France with French Navy vessel not far away monitoring / accompanying them to UK waters and as soon as the crossed into British waters, they are collected by Border Force. If IMT is reverent then the dinghies should not even be allowed to leave the French shores. Hey the British are a walk over .
Q. Were there any females on the crews and did you work with any of them, How are the crews different for windfarms and Border Force.
A. Yes females crew vessel on both windfarms and Border force vessels, if you're qualified to do the job then you can do the job male or female. The vessels are pretty much the same.
Q: Who else works in Ramsgate for Seacat and Border Force?
A: Wow really, Do your homework and find out yourself. Most the people are good guys just doing there jobs, most of them don't agree with the migrant situation but carry out their jobs professionally.
Q: What was it like working in Ramsgate?
A: It's like any other job on the sea, you have your ups and downs.
Q: Can you elaborate on that?
A: No.
Q: Why wont you comment?
A: It's not my place to and I feel like you're on a witch hunt.
Q: We know you have worked in Ramsgate with Joanne Lewis, Who else have you worked with in Ramsgate?
A: Ha, that nutcase. Working with her is one hell of an experience.
Q: Tell us a bit about her?
A: That's a can of worms and not enough hours left of my lifetime to tell you about that one.
Mark then said he wasn't going to answer any questions about himself, others he's worked with or past employers.
At this point it was clear we weren't going to get any more out of Mark and agreed to stop asking any more question.
Our summary:
Mark seems happy with his experience working for Seacat, having the opportunity to work from the top to bottom ends of the UK.
Mark was evasive when asked about working from Ramsgate. Clearly he was not going to give us anything to report.
Why? does he know more than he's saying, We thing so and will try to interview him at a later date.
We have names of others that work in Ramsgate and will be reporting what we have on them soon. Richard, Jemma and others. We know Grant for some reason left Seacat, we hope to interview him soon.
Richard Akaba
Highly qualified and engineer
We have tried to contact Richard (Rich) to no avail.
This is what we do know about him.
Richard has worked his way from deck hand to Mate.
Working as a deckhand Richard was more than capable of carrying out all tasks required and his crew mates enjoyed working with him.
He was soon promoted to the captains mate as other qualified crew refused to take on the role, this is were we question the qualifications required to legally carry out the tasks of Mate.
This is what we found:
Qualification required to be a captain mate
To become a Captain Mate (also known as Chief Mate), one needs to meet the following requirements:
- Maritime Education: A degree or diploma in Nautical Science is not strictly necessary, but a two-year nautical course from a Marine Academy or equivalent institution is recommended.
- Onboard Training: Gain experience as a deck cadet or apprentice officer onboard a ship for several months.
- Licensing: Pass the 2nd Mate examination, which qualifies you to work as a 3rd Officer onboard a ship.
- Progressive Promotions: Step-by-step promotions through the ranks:
- 4th Officer
- 3rd Officer
- 2nd Officer
- Chief Officer (Chief Mate)
- Written and Oral Examinations: Pass written and oral examinations for Chief Mate and Master Mariner certifications.
- Sea Time: Accumulate sufficient sea time and experience to demonstrate competence and responsibility.
Note that these qualifications may vary slightly depending on the country or region, but this provides a general outline of the typical path to becoming a Captains Mate.
Seacat can you prove Richard has the required to carry the role of Mate on your vessels. We know Richard has called out a buoy was another vessel. Any experienced seamen can tell the difference.
Seacat please feel free to comment on this via our contact page.
Also during an internal investigation where deckhand Joanne Lewis assaulted you by physically pushing you, she put her hand on your face pushing you backward, causing you to full back on the sofa behind you. Due to the outburst crew mates were left wondering what next so was reported to Seacat. We know both Rich and Grant (Volunteer's Captain) both said that the incident didn't happed.
We know it did, so why did you both lie. this leaves us thinking she has something on you as there is no reason to lie in an investigation.
It has come to light that a member of another crew when visiting at Volunteers accommodation needed to use your ensuite toilet to find Joanne half naked in your bed. it seems you at the time had no knowledge of this as you wouldn't of offered for your ensuite to be used.
BUT why would another woman feel relaxed enough to be in your bed half naked ?
We think that you felt you had to lie as you didn't want this to come out. or possibly other occasions as well.
Richard, you lied causing the other witnesses that said this incident happened (the truth) being investigated for fabricating lies. you caused undue stress to them because you wouldn't or couldn't tell the truth. WHY IS THAT ?
Crew mates that have worked under Richard feel like they cant trust him. If something went wrong would he lie to cover himself regardless to anyone else or would he stand up and tell the truth.
Readers you decide.
Richard please feel free to contact us, would would like the hear your side of events.
Grant
Volunteer Captain for approximately one year. We believe he has now left Seacat to work in the windfarm industry for another company
We are currently trying to contact him about is experience and opinion with the illegal migration.
What we do know:
Grant was assessed on his capability of control of the Border Force vessels and then become the Captain of Border Force Volunteer.
This was a huge step up from his experience of driving Naval Rib's.
As Captain of Border Force Volunteer he carried out a number of successful collections of migrants that managed to enter into UK waters. some of which being a genuine rescue of migrants in turbel and others just
He soon lost respect of his crew when during an internal investigation of above mentioned, said he doesn't recall the incident in question.
We are also aware of a incident that required entering French waters, a migrant dinghy got into trouble and was sinking, RNLI was called out including a helicopter. The migrants rescued in French waters was brought back to the UK .... Why not taken back to France.
As mentioned we haven't been able to contact Grant about this and hope to be able to report his recollection on this soon.
More Seacat Crew names
The list of names below are people that have or work for Seacat
New Seccat Contract
It has come to our attention that Seacat has revised its employee contracts to include provisions preventing employees from discussing the work they perform.
This suggests that the company is aware of public disapproval regarding their involvement in chartering vessels to the Home Office for transporting illegal migrants.
Seacat Employees
Here is a list of people that have or still work for Seacat.
This screen shot has been taken from Crew Smart the system used to manage crew operations.
We aim to dig deep into the lives of people working for Border Force, reporting everything we find in their personnel and professional lives.
We will report everything we find !!!
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