Singapore: Four men face jail time for stealing petrol from Police Coast Guard patrol craft

Four Singaporean technicians were sentenced to jail in Singapore on Wednesday (14 February) for stealing 100 litres of petrol from Police Coast Guard (PCG) patrol vessels, according to reports from local media. 

The men who were hired to maintain PCG vessels instead worked together to steal petrol worth about SGD 183 (USD 136) from PCG patrol craft over a period of four days in July 2023. 

All four men pleaded guilty to theft of the petrol. Muhammad Khairullah Abdullah, 31, was sentenced to jail for five weeks and ordered to pay SGD 101.65 to compensate for the stolen petrol. 

Muhammad Shahzwan Hissam, 33, and Muhammad Rizuan Leman, 34, were each received a jail term of four weeks and ordered to pay SGD 54.91 each. Alden Teo Chee Kiat, 32, was jailed for three weeks and ordered to pay SGD 45.76.

The men worked for Lungteh Shipbuilding, a firm contracted by PCG to help service and maintain their patrol craft berthed at PCG’s Lim Chu Kang base.

They were employed as service technicians, and were tasked to clean the PCG craft’s engines and generators and change the engine oil.

On 3 July, 2023, the four men stole around 40 litres of petrol using a manual pneumatic fluid extractor. Three of them used the stolen petrol to refill their motorcycles, while Teo topped up his car.

After their initial success, they stole about 60 litres of petrol from PCG patrol craft on 4, 10 and 11 July. 

Photo credit: Police Coast Guard
Published: 15 February, 2024