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Three more suspects in multi-million Shell fuel heist charged

SINGAPORE — Three more men were charged in court on Saturday (Jan 13) in connection with a multi-million fuel heist from Shell’s Pulau Bukom plant.

Two of the suspects being brought to court on Sat. Photo: Jason Quah / TODAY

Two of the suspects being brought to court on Sat. Photo: Jason Quah / TODAY

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SINGAPORE — Three more men were charged in court on Saturday (Jan 13) in connection with a multi-million fuel heist from Shell’s Pulau Bukom plant.

Two Singaporeans - Alan Tan Cheng Chuan, 45, and Ng Hock Teck, 54 - were charged with one count of abetting the commission of an offence of criminal breach of trust as servant each.

The third – Doan Xuan Than, a 45-year-old Vietnamese national – was charged with one count of dishonestly receiving stolen property. 

TODAY understands none of them are Shell employees and that they were arrested separately from a gang of 17 men nabbed in a police sting operation on Sunday.

Tan and Ng allegedly conspired to dishonestly receive stolen property of about 300 metric tons of gas oil worth S$160,000.

Court documents show that the loot was allegedly transferred from Pulau Bukom to a vessel called Sentek 26 in the early hours of Nov 11 last year. 

Meanwhile, Doan allegedly received about 1348.8 metric tonnes of gas oil worth more than S$736,000 at a Pulau Bukom wharf at about 8 pm on Dec 31 last year.

If convicted, they each face a jail term of up to five years and a possible fine. The trio will be remanded until their cases are scheduled to be heard again on Jan 18.

The arrests came after Shell Singapore lodged a report last August about misappropriation of fuel. In Sunday’s sting operation, police seized around S$3.05 million in cash, as well as a tanker weighing approximately 12,000 tonnes.

Eleven of those men were charged on Tuesday with misappropriating, and receiving fuel from Shell’s plant in Pulau Bukom. The 11 were allegedly involved in three different conspiracies, amounting to more than S$2.4 million worth of fuel.

These include nine Singaporeans – eight of whom are past and present Shell employees who are alleged to have committed criminal breach of trust at its manufacturing site.

They are Muzaffar Ali Khan Muhamad Akram, 36; Juandi Pungot, 41; Cai Zhi Zhong, 35; Tiah Kok Hwee, 41; Koh Choon Wei, 35; Muhammad Ali Muhammad Nor, 51; Mohd Ibrahim K. Abdul Majid, 52; Abdul Latif Ibrahim, 59; and Richard Goh Chee Keong, 48.

On Nov 21 last year, five of them – Muzzafar Ali, Juandi, Cai, Tiah and Koh – allegedly conspired and abetted to misappropriate 2,322 metric tonnes of gas oil worth S$1.3 million at Pulau Bukom.

The five men, who were Shell employees at the time of their offences, were allegedly at it again on Sunday. This time, they conspired with Muhammad Ali and stole some 1,260 tonnes of Shell fuel, valued at around S$688,000. Muhammad Ali is not a Shell employee and it is unclear who he was working for.

The loot was then believed to be moved onto a Panama-registered vessel, Prime South, which two Vietnamese who were also charged on Tuesday were on. They are Nguyen Duc Quang, 46, and Dang Van Hanh, 37.

As for Goh, Ibrahim and Latif — who were Shell employees — they allegedly conspired on Jan 5 to misappropriate more than 800 tonnes of fuel, worth around S$437,800, from the company.

Saturday’s development brings the number of people who have been charged so far to 14.

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