SINGAPORE - A 53-year-old Singaporean man was caught twice for smoking duty-unpaid cigarettes in the same area on the same day last Thursday (Oct 4).

The two offences happened about 90 minutes apart, the Singapore Customs said in a Facebook post on Wednesday.

Customs officers had first caught the man smoking a contraband cigarette during an operation in Bukit Merah Central last Thursday morning.

Officers then spotted him smoking a duty-unpaid cigarette again when they patrolled the same area about 90 minutes later.

Follow-up checks at his workplace and residence uncovered a total of three packets and 10 sticks of contraband cigarettes belonging to the man.

The man was issued composition sums totalling $2,900 for his offences. He had previously committed similar offences in 2013 and 2015.

A composition sum refers to the out-of-court payment that offenders make to settle custom offences.

The composition sum for a first-time offender who has up to one packet of duty-unpaid cigarettes in his possession is $500. Heavier penalties will apply for repeat offenders or for those found with more than one packet of contraband cigarettes.

According to the Singapore Customs website, duty-paid cigarettes in Singapore will bear the letters SDPC and have small vertical bars printed around it. SDPC is an abbreviation for Singapore Duty-Paid Cigarette.