Van driver stole 350 litres of diesel fuel from 2 parked lorries in Marsiling, gets 4 weeks’ jail

SINGAPORE — To sustain an illicit business of selling diesel fuel, Muhammed Dzulfaqar Abdul Mutalib installed a system of tanks and pumps in his van, which would allow him to dispense and extract fuel from other vehicles.
He would then sell the diesel fuel that he stole from lorries.
On Monday (Sept 2), the 39-year-old was sentenced to four weeks’ jail after pleading guilty to a charge of theft.
Another charge of theft was also taken into consideration in sentencing.
Without having the requisite permit, Dzulfaqar ran a business selling diesel fuel at various car parks to different buyers.
To do so, he installed a system of tanks and pumps in his van. The equipment included a tank with a vent, a filter, a pump and hoses for the dispensing and extracting of fuel.
By manipulating the components, he could extract and dispense fuel from another vehicle at an average flow rate of 0.89 litres a second.
On the evening of Aug 16 last year, the driver of a lorry belonging to the company LKG Engineering had parked the vehicle at a car park located at 8 Marsiling Industrial Estate.
Having completed his work shift, the driver noted that there was about 210 litres of diesel left in the lorry’s tank. He then left the car park for the night.
A few hours later, at about 12.50am, Dzulfaqar drove his van into the same car park. Court documents stated that he was planning to steal diesel from the vehicles parked there, but did not elaborate on how he would select the vehicles.
He parked his van to the left of the lorry and after alighting, connected the fuel tank system in his van to the lorry’s diesel tank to extract the fuel.
Over the next few minutes, he extracted about 150 litres of diesel fuel from the parked lorry. The estimated value of the stolen fuel is S$442.50
Dzulfaqar then drove his van and parked it next to another lorry at the same car park. He extracted 200 litres of diesel — valued at S$590 — from the second lorry.
Shortly after that, he left the car park at around 1.05am.
Between 7am and 8am that same day, the driver of the first lorry returned to his vehicle to start his work shift.
Upon discovering that its fuel tank was nearly empty, he informed his company about the theft.
The company made a police report later that morning.
Dzulfaqar’s van was traced and he was arrested on Aug 30 last year. He was held in police custody and remanded until Sept 7 for investigations, before he was released on bail.
He admitted that he was in the business of selling diesel at various car parks to different companies.
On Aug 31 this year, he made full compensation of S$1032.50 to LKG Engineering for the diesel fuel stolen from the two lorries.
Court documents did not state how long Dzulfaqar had been running this illegal operation and how much diesel fuel he had stolen in all.
Seeking a jail term of six to seven weeks, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Kiera Yu said that Dzulfaqar had stolen a “significant amount” of diesel fuel and that he had committed the offences with a high level of premeditation.
“(Dzulfaqar) had installed an elaborate fuel tank system that was specifically designed to extract and dispense a high volume of diesel fuel in a short period of time,” DPP Yu added.
She also said the mode of operation suggested that the offence was not committed on impulse, but that significant preparation was required.
Furthermore, the offence was “difficult to detect” and there were significant investigative efforts by the authorities to trace and identify Dzulfaqar.
As for Dzulfaqar having made compensation for the diesel fuel stolen from both lorries, the prosecution argued that this was done right before Monday’s court hearing as an “apparent afterthought and belated acceptance of responsibility”.
For committing theft, Dzulfaqar could have been jailed for up to three years or fined, or both.