A tanker chief officer has been jailed for two and a half years for stealing oil from a Shell refinery in Singapore.
CNA reported that Vietnamese national Dang Van Hanh, 38, was the first person to plead guilty in the "unprecedented" case of misappropriation, which involved two syndicates of Shell employees.
He received 5,600 tonnes - $2.6m worth - of gasoil stolen from Shell's Pulau Bukom on four occasions between 31 July, 2016, and 7 January, 2018.
TradeWinds reported in January that nine Singaporeans and two Vietnamese were charged in the case.
Court documents showed Dang's ship was the Vietnamese-owned 12,000-dwt Prime South (built 2009).
Of the nine Singaporeans charged, eight were current or former Shell employees, a spokesperson from Shell confirmed earlier this year.
Dang pleaded guilty to two charges of dishonestly receiving stolen property, with another two charges taken into consideration.
The court heard that Dang joined Prime Shipping Corporation six years ago.
He was initially assigned to another vessel, and when transferred to Prime South, he was informed by its outgoing chief officer that the ship had received illegal cargo from Shell's Pulau Bukom refinery on multiple occasions for extra money, CNA reported.
Stolen oil loaded
The court heard that on 6 January last year, the crew began loading legitimately bought oil.
The next day, the captain asked Dang to change the hose connection, switching it with two Shell employees to transfer stolen gasoil to the three remaining tanks.
Shortly after this, police officers boarded the ship.
Dang later said that he was paid between $1,000 and $2,000.
The prosecution accepted that Dang's culpability was relatively low.
He took instructions from his captain and the master of another Vietnamese ship involved, whose cases are still pending.
The prosecution also acknowledged that he had cooperated with investigations and pleaded guilty early.
