HONG KONG - Three men have been charged with theft after Hong Kong's biggest gold heist in a decade saw a gold trading firm robbed of 12 million US dollars worth of the precious metal, police said on Sunday.

The suspects, aged 39 to 42, were scheduled to appear in court Monday, police said.

The trio were arrested in connection with the October robbery of 265 gold bars worth more than 90 million Hong Kong dollars (S$15.1 million) from a warehouse in the city's outlying New Territories.

Most of the stolen gold has been recovered, according to media reports.