Suit No: Magistrate’s Appeal No 294 of 2013
Decision Date: 15 July 2014
Court: High Court
Coram: Choo Han Teck J
Counsel: Sant Singh SC and Lee Ping (Tan Rajah & Cheah) for the appellant; Andre Jumabhoy, Ilona Tan and Cheryl Lim (Attorney-General’s Chambers) for the respondent.
Subject Area / Catchwords
Criminal Law – Offences – Property – Receiving stolen property
15 July 2014
Judgment reserved
Choo Han Teck J:
1 This was an appeal against the decision of the District Judge (see PP v Chua Boon Chye [2013] SGDC 41 (“Chua”)). The appellant was convicted on 13 November 2013 on a charge of dishonestly receiving stolen property, namely, 105 metric tonnes of marine fuel oil, on 29 October 2007, pursuant to s 411 of the Penal Code (Cap 224, 1985 Rev Ed). The fuel was valued at S$69,106.70. On 19 November 2012, the appellant claimed trial to the charge. He was sentenced on 22 November 2013 to 8 months’ imprisonment. The appellant appealed against both the conviction and sentence.
2 The appellant made 8 arguments in his appeal against conviction, namely:
(a) the charge had not been made out at the close of the prosecution’s case;
(b) three witnesses were not called by the prosecution;
(c) his statement to the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (“CPIB”) recorded on 15 May 2008 was wrongly admitted into evidence;
(d) the evidence of the prosecution’s fifth witness, Hussein Ahmad bin Abdul Satar (“Hussein”) should not have been taken into account;
(e) the fact that the fuel in the charge was off-spec fuel was not appreciated;
(f) there were contradictions in the evidence of critical prosecution witnesses;
(g) adverse inferences should not have been drawn against him; and
(h) the organisational structure of the Aegean group of companies was relevant but not appreciated.
He also submitted that the sentence of 8 months was manifestly excessive. I will first set out the background facts of the case briefly, before considering each argument. There are three aspects of the background facts that are important: the appellant’s role, the operations at the terminal, and the nature of the fuel.
Background facts
3 First, the appellant’s role. The appellant was the director and general manager of Aegean Bunkering (Singapore) Pte Ltd (“AB”). AB was a wholly owned subsidiary of Aegean Marine Petroleum SA (“AM”), incorporated in Liberia. The directors of AM were Greek nationals. AM was in turn wholly owned by Aegean Marine Petroleum Network Inc (“AMPN”), which was incorporated in New York. AB was in the business of purchasing marine fuel oil (“MFO”). Once AB makes the purchase, according to the appellant, it would refer the operational aspects of delivery to a related company, Aegean Breeze Shipping Pte Ltd (“ABS”). Ioannis Sgouras (“Ioannis”), a defence witness, was the director of ABS. ABS was wholly owned by Aegean Shipholdings Inc, which was in turn wholly owned by AMPN. According to the appellant, ABS was part of the “operational arm” of AMPN, whereas AB and AM were part of the “trading arm”.
4 Second, the operations at the terminal. Shanker s/o Balasubramaniam (“Shanker”) was the Operations Executive at the Chevron Singapore Pte Ltd Terminal, a facility at No 210 Jalan Buroh (“the Terminal”). As part of his role, which included taking on the duty of shift superintendent, he would track the movement of fuel at the Terminal. The Terminal had approximately 45 tanks which stored different grades of fuel, and some of these tanks were leased to companies such as Marubeni International Petroleum (S) Pte Ltd (“Marubeni”) and Petrobras Singapore Pte Ltd (“Petrobras”). In the course of operations, minor discrepancies in tank readings could arise, which lead to “gains” and “losses” in fuel. When fuel is pumped into vessels, for instance, there may be a variance between the reading on the shore tank and the reading on the vessel. The tolerance level for this variance is 0.5%. Any amount constituting gains (within this 0.5%) is retained at the Terminal. Shanker, as shift superintendent, was the custodian of these discrepancies. At the end of each shift, he had to record them in a log book and report to his superior, Tan Poo Lee (the prosecution’s eighth witness).
5 Shanker conspired with two petroleum surveyors, Remy bin Khaizan (the prosecution’s second witness) (“Remy”) and Viknasvaran s/o Kumarasamy (the prosecution’s third witness) (“Viknasvaran”) to siphon off and sell the gains of fuel at the Terminal. As petroleum surveyors, Remy and Viknasvaran had to take measurements of the fuel in a barge before and after loading. However, in siphoning off fuel, their roles were as follows:
(a) Shanker identified the gains of fuel which had not been reported to Chevron.
(b) Shanker then informed Remy both of the quantity of gains available, and of vessels that were arriving at the Terminal for loading.
(c) Remy then negotiated with the vessel’s owner or representative (such as the appellant) for the sale of the illicit fuel.
(d) To conceal their wrongful acts either Remy or Viknasvaran boarded the vessels and took measurements of the fuel before and after loading. The figures were adjusted such that the loading of the excess fuel would not be detected (for instance, by inflating the pre-loading figure).
(e) When the loading was completed, Shanker prepared the Certificate of Quantity – which also excluded the quantity of the excess fuel.
(f) The payments for the excess fuel were made in Singapore dollars, in cash, and without any receipt.