Oil pollution: R v Bent Emmanuel Christianses (11 September 1998) Magistrates Court

United Kingdom

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency brought proceedings against the owners of a Dutch ship, the Weser, under the Merchant Shipping (Prevention of Oil Pollution) Regulations 1996. The grounds for the proceedings was a six mile long and thirty metre wide oil slick, five miles off the Cornish coast, which had been discharged by the ship. The owners of the ship, Bent Emanuel Christianses of Saeby, pleaded guilty and were fined £250,000, the statutory maximum, which had only recently been introduced by the Merchant Shipping and Maritime Security Act 1997. (ENDS Report 284, p47)