Vladimir Motin, the Russian captain of the cargo ship Solong that hit an anchored oil tanker within the North Sea in March, 2025. Photograph credit: Humberside Police / AFP
A UK court docket on Thursday (February 5, 2026) handed a six-year jail sentence to the Russian captain of a cargo ship that hit an anchored oil tanker within the North Sea final 12 months, killing one crew member.
Vladimir Motin was an “accident ready to occur,” Choose Andrew Baker mentioned as he sentenced the captain at London’s Outdated Bailey court docket for the manslaughter by gross negligence of Filipino sailor Mark Angelo Pernia.
“This was a gross failure to determine the collision threat,” he mentioned.
The 38-year-old seaman who died had been married with a younger baby. He was misplaced at sea following the crash and his physique has by no means been recovered
Pernia’s spouse had been pregnant with the couple’s second baby on the time of the “wholly avoidable” accident, the choose mentioned.
“The blame for it lies squarely at your arms,” he mentioned, including that “no sentence can carry Mr. Pernia again or take away the nice ache or grief for the lack of him”.
A jury earlier this week convicted Motin, from Saint Petersburg, after eight hours of deliberation.
The collision at pace in March 2025 set each vessels ablaze and triggered a large offshore rescue operation.
The jury was informed Motin was a “extremely educated” sailor who had captained the cargo ship the Solong for 15 years.
However the prosecution insisted that he “did nothing to keep away from the collision” wherein the Solong collided with the oil-laden Stena Immaculate.
“He may, and will, have acted in another way” when his ship was on “an apparent collision course” with the tanker, barrister Tom Little informed the trial.
Talking earlier, prosecutor Michael Gregory mentioned the accident had been attributable to Motin’s “really exceptionally unhealthy negligence”.
Revealed – February 05, 2026 07:12 pm IST