SINGAPORE - A 27-year-old man, Charles Phillip Santharasegaran, has been convicted for trying to take more than S$460,000 in local and foreign currencies out of Singapore without reporting it.

A person needs to declare any sum of monies exceeding S$20,000 when entering or leaving Singapore. Failure to do so constitutes a Cross Border Cash Reporting Regime offence.

On Nov 3, the police were alerted that a man was carrying cash exceeding $20,000 at the departure gate of Changi Airport Terminal 1.

Investigations revealed that he was going to board a flight for Papua New Guinea when an Aviation Screening Officer conducted a physical check on his hand-carry luggage. The officer found stacks of Singapore, United States and Australian dollars.

The man failed to report to an authorised officer on the movement of cash as required by a section under the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act.

He was sentenced on Nov 22 to a fine of $8,000 for one count of failure to report movement of cash under the Act.

Anyone who is convicted of failure to report movement of cash under this section can be fined up to $50,000 or jailed up to three years or to both.