Rena owner’s court date changed

[link to www.sunlive.co.nz]

“Complexity” is the reason for the re-scheduling of a court appearance of the Greek based owners of the stricken Rena cargo ship.
Greece-based Daina Shipping was due to appear in the Tauranga District Court on Wednesday facing charges laid by maritime New Zealand in relation to the ship’s grounding on Astrolabe Reef on October 5, 2011.

View of broken Rena in heavy sea swells taken on April 4. Image: Maritime New Zealand.
[link to www.sunlive.co.nz]

Both the defence and the prosecution asked for an adjournment due to the complex nature of the case.
Daina Shipping is charged under the Resource Management Act in relation to the discharge of harmful substances and carries a maximum fine of $600,000, and $10,000 for every day the offending continues.
Earlier this year the Rena’s captain Mauro Balomaga, 44, and navigation officer Leonil Relon, 37, were sentenced to seven months jail after pleading guilty to the charges laid against them.
The 37,000 tonne cargo ship Rena struck the Astrolabe Reef about 25km off the coast of Tauranga on October 5 subsquently spilling more than 350 tonnes of heavy fuel oil and containers into the ocean causing what is labelled “New Zealand’s worst environmental disaster”.