SINGAPORE, Sept 5 — A Chinese national has been slapped with a record S$560,000 (RM1.74 million) fine for masterminding a scheme to smuggle nearly 30,000 bottles of duty-unpaid beer into Singapore.

Han Xiaoyang, 47, pled guilty yesterday to seven charges of fraudulently evading duty, Singapore-based news outlet CNA reported, citing information from the Customs Department.

“Investigations revealed that Han had conceived and orchestrated a scheme to import duty-unpaid beer from China into Singapore through false declarations,” Customs was quoted as saying.

But Han did not pay the fine and as such, will instead serve 164 days in jail in default.

The seven charges centred on his evasion of roughly S$60,127 (RM187,000) in duty on 28,236 bottles of beer.

According to the news report, judges also took into account 15 further charges, comprising four counts of duty evasion and 11 counts of evading Goods and Services Tax.

Han’s accomplice, 29-year-old countryman Tong Baobao, was sentenced separately in May for his role as general manager of Wan Changya International (WCI), the company used to run the operation.

Tong pled guilty to three counts of fraudulent duty evasion involving about S$39,517 (RM123,000) and was fined S$322,000 (RM1 million).

He too failed to pay and served 80 days in jail instead.

The scheme came apart on Nov 19 last year, when Customs officers raided an industrial unit along Tagore Lane and caught two workers unloading a liquor shipment.

That single consignment held 4,044 bottles of unpaid beer, and follow-up searches turned up a further 31,016 bottles stashed elsewhere.

“To carry out the scheme locally, he used a Singapore-incorporated company and directed Tong to act on his instructions,” Customs said.

Investigators found that Han told Tong in August last year of his plan to import duty-unpaid beer from China for storage and resale in Singapore, boosting profits by dodging tax.

Tong was instructed to get a China-based freight forwarder to misdeclare the beer as non-dutiable goods such as food items or industrial machinery.

Han bought the beer in China and shipped it to WCI in Singapore under those false declarations, after which Tong arranged for it to be warehoused and delivered to local buyers.

Singapore law provides a fine up to 20 times the evaded duty and a maximum jail term of one  year for anyone convicted of dealing in duty-unpaid liquor.