SINGAPORE - The three men who were charged last Saturday (Jan 13) in connection with stealing oil from Shell's Pulau Bukom refinery were each hit with a fresh charge on Thursday (Jan 18).

Alan Tan Cheng Chuan, 45, and Ng Hock Teck, 54, who have been charged with conspiring to dishonestly receive $160,000 worth of stolen gas oil on Nov 11 last year, are said in the new charge to have received 764.81 tonnes of marine gas oil worth $252,558 at Pulau Bukom's wharf 1E on July 24 last year.

The charge states that the stolen oil was transferred from Pulau Bukom to a Singapore-registered vessel, Sentek 26.

Ship master Doan Xuan Than, 46, a Vietnamese national, is accused of conspiring with Koh Choon Wei, 35, to dishonestly receive 1,133 tonnes of gas oil worth US$639,726 on Dec 1 last year at wharf 6.

He is said to have transferred the stolen oil to a Panama-registered vessel MT Gaea at Pulau Bukom.

His first charge states that he received 1,348.8 tonnes of fuel worth $736,445 on Dec 31 last year by transferring the stolen property to the same vessel.

All three were represented by lawyers.

The prosecution sought a further week's remand for the trio for further investigations.

Their case will be mentioned on Jan 25.

To date, 14 men have been brought to court over the multi-million dollar fuel theft case, the biggest in recent memory.

During an islandwide operation on Jan 7, police seized around $3.05 million in cash, as well as a 12,000-tonne tanker.

The remaining nine Singaporeans - including eight employees and former employees of Shell Eastern Petroleum - and two Vietnamese nationals will make their third appearance in court on Monday. They have been remanded at Central Police Division.