Official predicts end of shipping firm as vessel held

AN Irish transport inspector has predicted a Latvian shipping company could be forced out of business after one of its ships, which he has been chasing in Irish ports for unpaid wages for almost two years, was arrested in Holland along with another of its vessels.

Ken Fleming, an inspector with the International Transport Federation (ITF), has twice detained the MV Defender in Cork after finding that its crew had not been paid for seven months. In 2008 he succeeded in securing thousands of euro in unpaid wages for the Eastern European crew from the ship’s owners Forestry Shipping.

However, last March the ship left Irish waters even though the company had not paid €80,000 owing to its seven Ukrainian and two Russian crew.