10 people caught selling electronic vaporisers fined over $100,000

Ten people have been convicted and fined more than $100,000 for selling electronic vaporisers here.

Aged between 19 and 36, the 10 people were prosecuted by the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) and convicted from November last year to January this year.

In a statement yesterday, HSA highlighted several of these individuals, including a man who bought and smuggled his stocks from Malaysia.

Andy Yap Wen Rong, 22, had failed in his initial attempt to advertise them on Carousell.

He was then caught advertising and selling e-vaporisers, or e-cigarettes, and related components on Telegram.

On Nov 25 last year, he was fined a total of $35,000.

The second case highlighted by the HSA was Damien Tng Jia Kang, 26, who was caught bringing in the prohibited items through Woodlands Checkpoint.

He was found to have also sold them on WhatsApp.

Tng was fined $13,500 on Dec 16 last year.

The third case highlighted was a foreign student who was caught selling e-vaporisers on multiple social media platforms.

Chen Xin, 23, was initially caught dealing with duty unpaid cigarettes by Singapore Customs.

But further investigations found that he was also selling e-vaporisers and related components on WhatsApp and WeChat.

On Jan 6, he was fined $22,500 for the e-vaporiser offences and $9,500 for dealing with duty unpaid cigarettes.

Since 2018, the HSA has prosecuted at least 74 people for selling e-vaporisers and their related components.

It is an offence to sell, possess for sale, import or distribute such items.

For each charge, those convicted can be fined up to $10,000 and jailed for up to six months.

The maximum sentence is doubled for repeat offenders.

The HSA said the highest fine meted out so far was $99,000.

There was also a case where an offender was jailed for a week and fined $61,000.

"HSA conducts active online surveillance and will continue to take strong enforcement actions against those selling e-vaporisers and related components," said the authority.

"We also work closely with the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority to monitor and stop illegal imports of e-vaporisers and related components."

It is also an offence to possess, buy or use e-vaporisers.

Those caught may be fined up to $2,000 per offence.

Since 2018, more than 7,000 people have been caught and taken to task for this.

Members of the public who have information on the illegal import, distribution, sale or offer for sale of e-vaporisers can submit a report online at go.gov.sg/report tobaccooffences.

They can also contact the HSA's Tobacco Regulation Branch on 6684-2036 or 6684-2037 from 9am to 5.30pm on weekdays.