The shipowners of a Panamanian freighter have been fined 100,000 pounds sterling and ordered to pay costs of 4,968 pounds sterling by Southampton Magistrates for polluting the Western Approaches.

The shamed company, Freedom Investments of Panama, had been caught out by a Royal Navy Lynx helicopter on a training flight whose crew photographed an oil slick 40 miles off Plymouth.

The ship MSC Ariane was inspected by the MCA at her port of destination, Antwerp, in Belgium, where it was found oil had been discharged inadvertently from a leaky pipe.