A captain of a ship has been sentenced to six years in prison after a crew member was declared deceased following a collision between a tanker and a container vessel in the North Sea in March 2025.
The captain of the Solong vessel, Vladimir Motin, 59-years-old, of Primorsky, St Petersburg, Russia, was found guilty on Monday 2 February of gross negligence manslaughter following a three-week trial at the Old Bailey, Central Criminal Court, London.
On Monday, 10 March 2025, Humberside Police received a call at around 11am from the HM Coastguard alerting them that a collision had occurred between two vessels in the North Sea, approximately 10.2 miles off the coast of East Yorkshire, with a crew member reported missing.
A multi-agency rescue operation was launched and led by HM Coastguard. This resulted in all 23 crew members being safely rescued and accounted for from Stena Immaculate, and from the Solong, 13 of the 14 crew members were accounted for and also rescued. All were brought ashore to Grimsby Docks.
Only one crew member, able seaman Mark Pernia, from the Solong was unaccounted for and after HM Coastguard carried out extensive searches to locate him, he was later declared deceased due to the length of time that had passed since the collision and the survivability within the extremely hostile environment.
Senior Investigating Officer, Detective Chief Superintendent Craig Nicholson said:
“Motin completely failed in his duty as a Captain, causing the death of one of his own crew and endangering the remaining lives of the crews of both vessels.
“Motin has shown no remorse at any stage of the investigation or court proceedings, and even though he has now been sentenced and held accountable for his crimes, it will not bring Mark back.
“I sincerely hope today’s outcome offers Mark’s family some measure of solace and my thoughts remain with them today.”
