$20K fine for real estate agent caught drinking client's milk from carton in Kamloops, B.C.

VANCOUVER -

A British Columbia real estate agent has been fined $20,000 after being caught on camera drinking milk straight out of the jug at a home he was showing.

• Read more: B.C. Realtor suspended after drinking client's milk staight out of carton

A consent order released by the BC Financial Services Authority last week says Mike Rose was alone in the home in Kamloops, B.C., in July last year as he waited for his clients, who were interested in buying the property.

Rose went to the refrigerator to find water, but instead swigged some milk straight from the container, which he then put back in the refrigerator.

The consent order, agreed by both the superintendent of real estate and Rose, says the owners of the home saw him drinking the milk when they reviewed footage from a surveillance camera, then confronted him about it two days later.

Rose, who apologized for his actions, was told he wasn't welcome in the home and his clients replaced him in their purchase of the property.

He says in the order that his behaviour was out of character, and he was “unusually dehydrated” at the time because of a new medication, as well as being under “considerable stress.”

Rose, who is now working at a different brokerage, agreed to pay a disciplinary penalty of $20,000 to the authority for conduct unbecoming, and $2,500 in enforcement expenses.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July. 28, 2023.