The scrapping of a ship well-known to Boro fans has been ruled illegal by a Bangladesh court.

And it could finally mean the end for what’s left of the vast North Sea Producer.

The imposing vessel was a familiar sight during its two stints docked next to The Riverside Stadium - first in 1996-97, when it was refitted to become an FPSO (floating production storage and offloading) vessel, then in 2015-16, when it was stored awaiting its fate.

In summer 2016, it was towed away to an undisclosed destination - eventually revealed as a beach-based Bangladeshi scrapyard, where unskilled workers, including children, break vessels down manually.

But in 2017, Janata Steel, the company which beached it at Chittagong, was served an injunction by the Bangladesh Court on the ongoing breaking of the ship after high levels of radiation were detected.

The North Sea Producer was fitted out on Teesside in the mid-1990s

And now the High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh has declared the import, beaching and breaking of the vessel was illegal.

The court noted that international shipbreaking laws had been violated and passed rulings for stronger regulations - including ensuring that no vessels are imported without verifiable certificates.

It has also directed national agencies to closely monitor the breaking of what remains of the Producer - but without Janata’s involvement.

The judgement was issued in a Public Interest Litigation filed by the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association.

The decision has been welcomed by shipbreaking workers’ rights group The NGO Shipbreaking Platform, which said the North Sea Producer saga was “not a case of poor human rights due diligence, but one where companies collude to earn big bucks on the back of people and the environment.”

It’s a messy end for a ship whose sheer size and proximity to the Riverside made it a matchday fixture for months, and in two separate stints.

After it was sold by its former owners in 2017, it was originally thought to be heading for Nigeria.

But the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is still investigating how it ended up on a Bangladeshi beach, more than 5,000 miles from what was thought to be its destination.

It all caused a major storm in Denmark - home of its original owners Maersk - with TV company TV2 and independent media research centre Danwatch questioning why a ship which once carried toxic materials could end up being broken up by hand by workers wearing shorts and flip-flops.

And now it looks like the end is finally nigh - but with the remaining dismantling taking place under strict supervision.