Singapore court jails polluters

A Singapore court has jailed the master of an oil tanker for 101/2 months for spilling oil in the city-state's waters and giving false and misleading statements.

Brendon Monteiro, who pleaded guilty to 10 charges of oil record-book offences and had an additional 40 charges taken into consideration, was also fined S$400,000 (about HK$2.2 million).

In addition, chief officer Pashupati Nath was jailed for six months after pleading guilty to a charge of giving false and misleading statements to investigators. A further 10 charges were taken into consideration.

The owner of the 229,946-deadweight-tonne Song San, Dong Sheng Tankers and its agent, Ocean Tankers, were each fined $400,000 after admitting similar charges.