Hoverspeed ferry skipper Jean Ramakers, from Belgium, was fined 3,000 (pounds sterling) for doing 30 knots in ‘dense fog’ and not keeping a proper lookout after colliding with a freight ship outside Dover.

Ramakers, skipper of the Hoverspeed high speed ferry Diamant loaded with 148 people en route to Ostend, was also ordered to pay 1,500 costs by Dover Magistrates after the court heard how he had collided with the freight ferry Northern Merchant.

District Judge Riddle said the smash could have caused a ‘catastrophic incident’.