The entire crew of the Mongolia-flagged oil tanker Apphia 9 was sentenced to jail by a Judge at the State Courts of Singapore on Tuesday (12 October) over the theft of marine fuel oil (MFO) from the Consort Bunkers Pte Ltd owned and operated Singapore-flagged bunker tanker Pearl Melody.

The details of the jail sentence* for the respective co-accused are as follows:

• Eron Laelo (Master) was sentenced to an imprisonment term of seven months for s 411(1) charges – abetting by intentionally aiding the receipt of stolen property; and a fine of SGD 3,000 for reg 3A(3)(a) – failing to install and maintain in operate an approved transponder on board Apphia 9.
• Yanto Salindeo (Chef) was sentenced to an imprisonment term of nine months for s 411(1) charges – abetting by intentionally aiding the receipt of stolen property; and a fine of SGD 4,000 for reg 3A(3)(a) – abetting offences committed by Eron Laelo.
• Remaining seven co-accused (Crews), Abdul Aziz, Adrie Salindeho, Djoyfmon Salindeho, Gamaliel Donggala, Siwy Galvao Yanova, Very Salindeho and Whaynel Muhouland Anggoman were each sentenced to an imprisonment term of six months for s411(1) charges – abetting by intentionally aiding the receipt of stolen property.

Consort Bunkers – a ‘victim’ of the Pearl Melody incident

“The victim is Consort Bunkers Pte Ltd, the owner of the Pearl Melody,” stated the joint statement of facts (SOF) obtained by Singapore bunkering publication Manifold Times.

The SOF document described Apphia 9 sailing alongside the Pearl Melody on 5 June at about 2.30 am to conduct the illegal ship-to-ship (STS) MFO transfer operation under instructions from Yanto.

Gamaliel threw a rope over Pearl Melody, joining the two ships, while Whaynel fixed a hose on Apphia 9. Djoyfmon, Gamaliel, Siwy and Verry then brought the hose to Pearl Melody to facilitate receipt of the MFO.

Once the hose was connected to Pearl Melody, Djoyfmon, Siwy and Verry went to the Apphia 9 engine room to start and monitor the fuel transfer pump while Adrie remained on deck to assist in calculating the amount of MFO transferred.

In total, 100.906 metric tonnes (mt) of MFO worth approximately SGD 69,894.56 was transferred from Pearl Melody to Apphia 9 with no bunker delivery note (BDN) being issued in relation to the operation.

All accused persons were arrested by forces from the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) midway through the illegal operation.

*All crew of the Apphia 9 have been in remand since 7 June 2021, thus all imprisonment terms were backdated.

Related: Singapore: Consort Bunkers confirms ‘Pearl Melody’ in alleged unauthorised STS incident

Photo credit: Carles Rabada on Unsplash
Published: 22 October, 2021