An Irish transport inspector has predicted a Latvian shipping company could be forced out of business after one of its ships, which he has been chasing in Irish ports for unpaid wages for almost two years, was arrested in Holland along with another of its vessels, reported The Irish Examiner.

Ken Fleming, an inspector with the International Transport Federation (ITF), has twice detained the Defender in Cork after finding that its crew had not been paid for seven months. In 2008, he succeeded in securing thousands of euro in unpaid wages for the Eastern European crew from the ship's owners Forestry Shipping.

However, last March the ship left Irish waters even though the company had not paid about US$118,000 owing to its seven Ukrainian and two Russian crew.

In July, another boat belonging to Forestry Shipping, the Linda sailed into Dundalk port and the eight crew went on strike saying they were owed $61,691 between them.

Now both the Defender and the Fairland, which also belongs to Forestry Shipping, have been formally arrested at the request of the ITF in Holland because of the money owed to their crew. If the company does not come forward with the owed wages within two weeks the ships will be auctioned off to the highest bidder and the money given to the crew.