The owner of a harbor tanker has been fined £3,000 with more than £7,000 costs after pleading guilty to a charge of operating a vessel for being dangerously unsafe. Joseph O’Connor was fined at the hearing in Southampton Magistrates Court February 12 following his guilty plea to the charge which was brought until the Merchant Shipping Act 1995. In March 2009 the Wadestone, then known as the Humber Star, sank at its berth on Weston Wharf in the River Solent. As a result, the vessel was detained by the Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) as being dangerously unsafe on March 26, 2009. At the time it was detained it was noted that Wadestone (Humber Star) had been poorly maintained and repaired and was not fit to go to sea.