3 more men charged over fuel theft from Shell's Pulau Bukom plant

Singaporeans Alan Tan Cheng Chuan (in black) and Ng Hock Teck (in white), as well as Vietnamese national Doan Xuan Than (left), were charged on Jan 13. PHOTO: SHIN MIN DAILY NEWS

SINGAPORE - Three more men were charged on Saturday morning (Jan 13) in connection with fuel theft from Shell refinery at Pulau Bukom.

Two of the accused - Singaporeans Ng Hock Teck, 54, and Alan Tan Cheng Chuan, 45 - were alleged to have dishonestly received 300 metric tonnes of gas oil valued at $160,000 on Nov 11, 2017.

Court documents stated that the pair had supposedly committed the offence at Pulau Bukom's wharf 4 at around 5.20am.

The third man, Vietnamese national Doan Xuan Than, 45, faces one count of allegedly receiving 1,348.8 metric tonnes of stolen gas oil worth more than $736,400 on Dec 31 last year.

In both instances, the stolen fuel was said to have been transferred onto two vessels - Singapore-registered Sentek 26 and Panama-registered MT Gaea.

The trio is expected to appear in court on Jan 18.

Seventeen men were first arrested in an islandwide raid on Jan 7, and 11 of them were charged on Tuesday in connection with their involvement in three other fuel theft cases.

The 11 men consists of nine Singaporeans and two Vietnamese nationals.

The authorities had seized $3.05 million in cash and a 12,000-tonne tanker in the raid at the refinery.

The men were alleged to have stolen roughly 4,300 metric tonnes of gas oil worth $2.4 million between November 2017 and Jan 7 this year.

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