Holland Maas Scheepvaart Beheer II has reached a €2.2m ($2.5m) settlement and paid €780,000 in fines for scrapping a boxship in India in breach of European waste export regulations.
The Dutch prosecutor had claimed the 14,000-gt HMS Laurence (built 1985) had been scrapped in conditions in Alang India that “cause serious damage to the environment and expose the health of workers and the local population to grave danger .”
It is the second successful case brought by public prosecutors against a Dutch shipowner the following the prosecution of Seatrade for a demolition deal last year.
Holland Mass is a subsidiary of WEC Lines.
Ship recycling lobby group NGO Shipbreaking Platform welcomed the decision.
Executive director and founder Ingvild Jensen said: “It is very encouraging to see that ship owners are being held accountable for the trafficking of toxic ships – it is also encouraging to see that WEC Lines is now committed to the safe and clean recycling of its fleet off the beach.”
The EUR 2.2m settlement represents the profit the yard made on the sale in India rather than an approved non-beaching shipyard.
In 2015, the captain of the HMS Laurence was sentenced by the Dutch Maritime Disciplinary Court to a six-month conditional suspension of his master’s navigation license.
Beaching the vessel was in breach of the captain’s duty of care to the environment, according to the Disciplinary Court. This first suspension of a European ship master revealed that also the crew can be held liable for dirty and dangerous shipbreaking.
Since the start of this year the demolition of EU-flagged vessels comes under the Ship Recycling Regulation and must be recycled at an approved facility.
