SINGAPORE, Sept 6 — A man who hid 2,400 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes in wooden frames and brown boxes in a terraced house was fined S$6.6 million (RM19.85 million) and jailed 38 months.
Abdul Rashid Abdullah, a repeat offender, pleaded guilty to two charges of dealing with duty-unpaid cigarettes last Thursday.
He was previously convicted on October 3, 2008 for dealing with 1,239 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes and was then sentenced to 36 months’ imprisonment.
The 61-year-old Singaporean will have to serve an additional 22 months of default sentence if he is unable to pay the fine.
Acting on a tip-off last Wednesday, Singapore Customs conducted a check at the terraced house in Upper Paya Lebar Road and found the duty-unpaid cigarettes.
The duty and Goods and Service Tax (GST) evaded amounted to about S$204,990.
Investigations revealed that Abdul Rashid had rented the house to store the cigarettes.
He retrieved them from the wooden frames using tools such as a hammer, penknife and screwdrivers, said Singapore Customs in a news release today.
Under the Customs Act and GST Act, it is an offence to buy, sell, convey, deliver, store, keep, have in possession or deal with duty-unpaid good. Offenders can be fined up to 40 times the amount of duty and GST evaded, and/or jailed for up to six years.
The minimum court fine for first-time and repeat offenders of tobacco-related offences is S$2,000 and S$4,000 respectively.
Repeat offenders who are caught with more than 2kg of tobacco products will also face mandatory jail sentences. — TODAY
