Princess Cruises has been fined $40m for the use of a “magic pipe” to illegally dump oil contaminated waste at sea by a court in Miami on Wednesday.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) described the fine as “ the largest-ever for crimes involving deliberate vessel pollution”.

A British engineer is also set to be awarded $1m for reporting the illegal discharges to the UK’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), which in turn provided the evidence to the US Coast Guard.