A yachtsman has appeared in court charged with getting his boat in the way of a Devonport frigate.

Adrian Bishop, aged 51, has denied impeding HMS Monmouth within the dockyard in the port of Plymouth on May 19.

He also appeared before Plymouth Magistrates’ Court to deny failing to comply with a direction by MoD police on board a launch on the same date.

The bench heard that Bishop’s 10-metre yacht, Zest, allegedly obstructed HMS Monmouth at 8pm on that date and then failed to move out of the way when directed by the police.

Magistrates were told that the vessel was crossing about 700 metres ahead of the warship.

Bishop, of Old Park Road in Peverell, representing himself, said he had been sailing ‘his whole life’ including five years in Plymouth. Magistrates adjourned the case until an expected two-day trial on December 15 and December 16.

An officer from HMS Monmouth is due to attend and tracking logs showing the paths of both the warship and the yacht are likely to be produced.