A PARALLEL importer of cars was on Monday fined $10.8million for evading Customs duty and the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on vehicles he brought in from Japan. It is believed to be a record fine for tax evasion.

According to a Singapore Customs statement, the amount involved for the 2,556 cars imported by Tay Kien Chuan, 33, was more than $2.5million.

Tay pleaded guilty to 327 charges; another 1,668 were considered. As he is unable to pay the fine, he will go to jail for 81/2 years instead.

On Monday, District Judge Sarjit Singh also fined another former car parallel importer $976,000 for dodging taxes.

Tan Chi Beng, 30, now a technician, pleaded guilty to 40 charges. Another 194 were considered during sentencing. He will be jailed for 61 weeks if he cannot pay the fine.

In the first case, the court heard that Tay, who owned car importer 8th Gear, instructed his Japanese suppliers to indicate lower values in the commercial invoices for 1,551 cars between June 2006 and July 2007. This way, the cars were subject to lower duties and GST than if their actual values had been declared.

Tay paid his suppliers the false lower values, and made good the difference due to them in cash in face-to-face meetings in Singapore and Japan. He made 603 false declarations, evading $1.1million in duty and $330,903 in GST.

In November 2006, he asked Ang Hian Koon, 36, to set up Allied Auto to import cars from Japan, but he ran the show. By under-declaring the value of 995 cars in the first seven months of 2007, he evaded duty of $728,767 and $218,630 in GST.

Then, last year, he plotted with yet another car dealer to collaborate with a British supplier to under-declare the value of 10 Porsche cars from Britain.

The other car dealer convicted on Monday, Tan, used to own Cyril Auto. He was aided in this by a 32-year-old man. Tan imported 167 cars from Japan between 2006 and 2007 and under-declared the values in 40 import permits. By paying $763,141 instead of $862,589 in excise duties, Cyril Auto evaded paying $99,448.

Please read the full story in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times