Posted on March 14, 2025
Four Dutch crew members involved in a ship collision in Singapore have pleaded guilty for their role in the city-state’s worst oil spill in a decade, the Straits Times reported Wednesday.
Richard Ouwehand, Martin Hans Sinke, Eric Peijpers, and Merijn Heidema admitted to failing to discharge their duties properly and pleaded guilty to one charge each under the Merchant Shipping Act 1995, the newspaper said.
The sailors were on Netherlands-flagged dredger Vox Maxima when it struck bunker-fuel vessel Marine Honour at a shipping terminal in June 2024, damaging ten cargo oil tanks and necessitating repairs that could cost over S$6.6 million ($5 million). They are scheduled to be sentenced on April 2. Each of them can be fined up to S$50,000, jailed for up to two years, or both, the report said.
The spillage was carried by a tidal current as far as the east of the island for more than 30 kilometers (18 miles), leading to a clean-up that took over two months.
