The Rena's captain has pleaded guilty on all charges for his actions as master of the container ship on the night it ran aground on the Astrolabe Reef.
He admitted guilt today in the Tauranga District Court to charges laid under the Maritime Transport Act, Crimes Act and Resource Management Act.
The Rena's captain and navigation officer in court today.
He retains name suppression.
The ship's navigation officer, whose name is also suppressed, also appeared in court today and he plead guilty to a charge laid under the Maritime Transport Act and to three charges laid against him under the Crimes Act.
He is yet to enter a plea on a charge laid under the Resource Management Act.
Both men face the same charges; under the Maritime Transport Act 1994 for operating a vessel in a manner likely to cause danger, under the Resource Management Act 1991 for discharging a contaminant and on three charges under the Crimes Act for altering ship documents.
The captain faces one additional charge under the Crimes Act for altering ship documents.
The charges under the Crimes Act each carry a maximum penalty of seven years imprisonment.
The RMA charge is under section 338 (1B) and (15B) relates to the ‘discharge of harmful substances from ships or offshore installations'.
It carries a maximum penalty of a fine of $300,000, or two years imprisonment and $10,000 for every day the offending continues.
The Maritime Transport Act carries a maximum penalty of $10,000 or a maximum term of imprisonment of 12 months.
Sentencing for the master is scheduled for May 25 at the Tauranga District Court.
The navigation officer is scheduled to reappear in the Tauranga District Court on May 22 where more pleads are expected.
They are remanded on bail.
6 comments
Rena Captain
Posted on 29-02-2012 11:44 | By Brian61
Despite all that has happened with oil spills and cargo reaching our shores this man has to be commended for pleading guilty. You have shown responsibility for your actions and lets hope the ship's owners will take responsibility also.
all I ask is . . .
Posted on 29-02-2012 12:43 | By Gee Really
that the captain an ship owners immediately pay all the expenses involved in the clean-up.
Don't agree
Posted on 29-02-2012 17:32 | By Justintime
Can't agree with you Brian61. One of the other charges is for altering the logbook after the event in an attempt to pervert the course of justice. With respect to the remainder, he probably had no choice but to plead guilty because of overwhelming evidence against him. He may get some allowance for that at sentencing, so its to his benefit. Look forward to finally finding out how they managed to do it.
Owners paying for clean up
Posted on 29-02-2012 19:17 | By Sandyshirl
Yes would be great if they did, but can't see that happening. The ships owners should definitely be paying for everything and taking full responsibility of everything. Why should we also let this shipping company into our waters if they don't pay up. Ban them for good.
Payment....
Posted on 29-02-2012 21:39 | By TW72
Currently the bill is sitting at the $130M dollar mark. At the beginning of this crisis the ships owners MSC donated $1m for the clean up and the insurance company of the chartered vessel said it was insured for something along the lines of $12-$15m, so that is $130m-$16m= $114m in arrears. Look out BOP rate payers, We are going to get stung hard for this I can guarantee you that the little Filipino "Yes sir- No Sir- I am guilty as charged sir" man in the dock will not be paying for it out of his own pocket. He will be at sea again in charge of a similar sized vessel before we know it, He might even be in a NZ Port for all we know........
Keep your eyes on Judge Wolff
Posted on 01-03-2012 17:54 | By TheCameltoeKid
The good Judge has indicated that these clowns might not go to jail as, "other sentencing options are open to the court." Are you kidding me Judge Wolff? If you don't send these people to jail for a very long time get off the bench. I think Rogers hit the nail on the head a couple of weeks ago with his suppossedly ficticious editorial on the events of that night. Sounded about right to me. Anyway, keep your eyes on the beak because I'm bloody sure he's going to summon them to his chambers and spank their little botties with a wet copy of the Bay Times then send them on their merry little ways to stuff up some other part of the planet.
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