What would the likely troubles have been?

[JMISBEST]

In A Traveller Campaign back in either 97 where I was A Player my group were legally given A 200 Ton version of The 400 ton Yacht by A Noble whose entire Family they saved, but The GM's 2 1D10 rolls on A Table he made all came up A 8 or higher, which means that The Noble claimed they stole it to claim the insurance money and as he had A Social Scale of at least 12 and the highest Social Scale among The Pcs was 10 no-one would have believed them over him what would the likely troubles have been for me and the other players Pcs if the campaign hadn't ended for reasons I've forgotten?

 

[ChalkLine]

When a PC comes into possession of a starship it is registered at the ship's home port (Flag Country in real world terms). They also get a set of papers signed and ratified by the seller.

If we continue to extrapolate of how ships transfer ownership it means the noble is up against the Imperial Bureaucracy and is going to come off worst. No matter how powferul they are they have to obey Imperial Law.

However . . .

If they are a multi-system-owning noble they can make severe problems for the players within their systems. While this is not really much more than a pain in the arse normally in times of imperial weakness local power grows. In a time like a local war, imperial succession (known as an 'interregnum') or similar lessening of imperial power a local noble might reassert local power. Obviously the noble themselves will have better things to do in that time but the people the noble has given responsibility might try and repossess the ship and then take the matter to court.