Vijay Mallya’s Indian Empress held in Malta

Vijay Mallya’s 95-metre superyacht was prevented from leaving Malta’s Valleta Harbour by port officials after the vessel’s crew had withdrawn their labour after failing to be paid since September.

According to the crew the sum owed amounted to almost US$1m in unpaid wages. Among the crew are Britons, Indians and Eastern European workers.

The Oceanco-built vessel is valued around US$93m. However, the vessel has been impounded in a “maritime lien” which gives the crew claim over the vessel to the value of the unpaid wages.

Danny McGowan, strategic organiser of the maritime union Nautilus International, said crew were left with no choice but to ask the courts to hold the Isle of Man-registered superyacht.

McGowan went on to say the union had secured $615,000, which covers four months worth of unpaid wages from the vessel’s insurers under the international Maritime Labour Convention.

But he said Nautilus members were still owed an additional $330,000 and non-union crew members were owed hundreds of thousands more.

It seems Mallya is on bail and living in a £11.5m mansion in the Hertfordshire village of Tewin, near Welwyn, 20 miles north of London. Further rumours suggest Mallya has ‘abandoned’ the vessel…