61-year-old repeat offender jailed, fined $6.6 million for duty-unpaid cigarettes

SINGAPORE - A 61-year-old Singaporean man has been fined $6.6 million after he pleaded guilty to two charges of dealing with duty-unpaid cigarettes.

In addition to the fine, Abdul Rashid Bin Abdullah was also sentenced to 38 months' imprisonment on Sept 1, Singapore Customs said in a statement on Tuesday (Sept 6).

On Aug 1, 2,400 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes were found by Singapore Customs officers at a terraced house in Upper Paya Lebar Road following a tip-off.

The duty and Goods and Services Tax (GST) evaded amounted to about $204,990.

Abdul Rashid was subsequently arrested, and investigations revealed that the repeat offender had rented the house to store the duty-unpaid cigarettes, which were concealed in wooden frames.

He was previously convicted on Oct 3, 2008 for dealing with 1,239 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes and was then sentenced to 36 months' imprisonment.

If Abdul Rashid is unable to pay the $6.6 million fine, he will have to serve an additional 22 months of default sentence.

Singapore Customs said in its statement that offenders under the Customs Act and the Goods and Services Tax Act can be fined up to 40 times the amount of duty and GST evaded, and / or jailed for up to six years.[[nid:321815]]

Read also: Sizable quantity of duty-unpaid cigarettes seized

grongloh@sph.com.sg