A Singapore judge has told World Fuel Services (WFS) to step back to its place in the queue after it tried to argue that it should get priority over the mortgage bank in the auction of two repossessed ships.

Besides confirming Piraeus Bank’s precedence in dividing up the auction proceeds, Judge Belinda Ang Saw Ean criticised the bunkerer — and implicitly the bunkering industry in general — for following practices that expose them to unnecessary risk from ­defaulting clients.