Updated: 04/17/2014 20:18 | By Channel NewsAsia
Man jailed 18 months for misappropriating fuel
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SINGAPORE: A marine engineer who misappropriated 200 tonnes of fuel worth more than S$153,000 from his ship was on Thursday sentenced to 18 months' jail for criminal breach of trust as a servant.
58-year-old Pittis Stavros was convicted on April 10 of engaging in a buy-back scheme with a bunker clerk and an independent marine surveyor.
The Greek had under-declared the amount of fuel remaining in MV Sakura Princess, the vessel for which he is a chief engineer. Instead of supplying the full 500 tonnes of fuel to the vessel, only 300 tonnes were delivered.
Together with other suspects, Stavros then sold back the remaining 200 tonnes to the fuel supplier.
Stavros was arrested on January 10, 2013, the day the transaction took place.
In his submissions, prosecutor Sanjiv Vaswani urged the court to impose a jail term of 28 months, citing the great degree of pre-meditation and planning to avoid detection.
Mr Vaswani said that it is in the public's interest to deter bunkering-related offences.
Singapore is the top bunkering port in the world, he added, with sales rising to 42.5 million metric tonnes in 2013, from 25.4 million tonnes in 2005.
However, defence lawyer Shashi Nathan argued that the S$30,300 that Stavros was said to have received in exchange for the short-supply was not found. He added that the person who allegedly received the money was also missing.
Mr Nathan said Stavros had not benefited personally from the transaction.
However, District Judge Eddy Tham said it is in the public's interest to deter such crimes and imposed an 18-month jail term.
Stavros has requested to be allowed to go back to Athens to spend the Good Friday weekend with his family. His bail was doubled from S$60,000 to S$120,000.
The defence has indicated that it is appealing against both the conviction and the sentence. - CNA/ac
