Fraudulent Certificate of Competency
The investigation into the issuing of fraudulent Certificate of Competency’s (COCs) by the Montserrat Yachting Association (MYA), prompted the Red Ensign Group (REG) to issue an official statement. The REG also published a letter to the IMO further clarifying the situation, which will be circulated to all IMO members in the coming days.
Rumours of fraudulent COC tickets from MYA have persisted and were further brought to the attention of The Superyacht Group in June 2022 via an anonymous source. Correspondences were seen by us between the source, pretending to be a yacht officer, and the MYA suggesting that it would be willing to accept cash payments in exchange for upgrading tickets to Yacht Master Ocean COCs. As the MYA is not authorised or recognised by the British Shipping Registry, these tickets are not valid.
Outlined below are excerpts from a letter from the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the IMO Secretary-General. The full letter will be circulated to all IMO members in the coming days.
“I would like to take this opportunity to bring to the attention of the IMO that the Montserrat Yachting Association (MYA) has no connection with the Montserrat Maritime Administration (as part of the group of British Registries) and has no authority to issue any ship or crew documentation on behalf of, or pertaining to be linked with, the British flag administration of Montserrat. It does not have the United Kingdom’s authority to issue STCW Certificates of Competency.”
The full story can be found here on Superyacht News
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