(for info...scale 4 fine is up to £2500 and scale 3 fine is up to £1000)

Merchant Shipping Act 1995

Section 236

Duties of finder etc of wreck.

236.-(1) If any person finds or takes possession of any wreck in United
Kingdom waters or finds or takes possession of any wreck outside United
Kingdom waters
and brings it within those waters he shall-

(a) if he is the owner of it, give notice to the receiver stating that
he has found or taken possession of it and describing the marks by which it
may be
recognised;

(b) if he is not the owner of it, give notice to the receiver that he
has found or taken possession of it and, as directed by the receiver, either
hold it to the
receiver's order or deliver it to the receiver.

(2) If any person fails, without reasonable excuse, to comply with
subsection (1) above he shall be liable, on summary conviction, to a fine
not exceeding level 4 on
the standard scale and if he is not the owner of the wreck he shall also-

(a) forfeit any claim to salvage; and

(b) be liable to pay twice the value of the wreck-

(i) if it is claimed, to the owner of it; or

(ii) if it is unclaimed, to the person entitled to the wreck.

(3) Any sum payable under subsection (2)(b) above to the owner of the wreck
or to the persons entitled to the wreck may, in England and Wales and
Northern
Ireland, be recovered summarily as a civil debt.

(4) In Scotland any sum payable under subsection (2)(b) above to the owner
of the wreck or to the persons entitled to the wreck shall, for the purposes
of the
sum's recovery, be regarded as a debt due to the owner or, as the case may
be, to those persons.



Merchant Shipping Act 1995

Section 246

Interfering with wrecked vessel or wreck.

246.-(1) Subject to subsection (2) below, a person commits an offence if,
without the permission of the master, he boards or attempts to board any
vessel which is
wrecked, stranded or in distress.

(2) No offence is committed under subsection (1) above if the person is the
receiver or a person lawfully acting as the receiver or if he acts by
command of the
receiver or a person so acting.

(3) A person commits an offence if-

(a) he impedes or hinders or attempts to impede or hinder the saving
of-

(i) any vessel stranded or in danger of being stranded, or
otherwise in distress, on or near any coast or tidal water; or

(ii) any part of the cargo or equipment of any such vessel; or

(iii) any wreck;

(b) he conceals any wreck;

(c) he defaces or obliterates any mark on a vessel; or

(d) he wrongfully carries away or removes-

(i) any part of any vessel stranded or in danger of being
stranded, or otherwise in distress, on or near any coast or tidal water;

(ii) any part of the cargo or equipment of any such vessel; or

(iii) any wreck.

(4) The master of a vessel may forcibly repel any person committing or
attempting to commit an offence under subsection (1) above.

(5) A person who is guilty of an offence under this section shall be liable,
on summary conviction-

(a) in the case of an offence under subsection (1) above, to a fine not
exceeding level 3 on the standard scale;

(b) in the case of an offence under subsection (3) above, to a fine not
exceeding level 4 on the standard scale.