Logistics firm GM jailed 33 months, fined $890k for customs offences involving alcohol, cigarettes

SINGAPORE – A general manager was fined $890,000 and sentenced to 33 months’ jail for customs offences on Sept 25 after pleading guilty to illegally removing uncustomed goods as well as importing them.

The offences were unravelled after Singapore Customs began investigating Warehouse Logistics Net Asia (WLNA) in October 2020, following a report by an importer that duty payment permits had been obtained but were later cancelled despite making the necessary payments to the logistics firm.

The agency said on Monday that See Thiam Cheng Edward, 52, was the GM of the logistics firm at the time of the offences.

Between May 2018 and March 2019, he collected duty and goods and services tax (GST) payments from an importer who wanted to release 85,764 bottles of duty-suspended liquor and 79,993 cans of duty-suspended beer for the purpose of domestic consumption.

However, See did not apply for duty payment permits and did not make the necessary duty and GST payments to Singapore Customs.

The total duty and GST evaded amounted to $136,250 and $12,078 respectively, said the agency.

When Singapore Customs did a full inspection of the inventory in the licensed warehouse operated by WLNA, it also found that 3,696 cans of duty-suspended beer were unaccounted for.

Licensed warehouses are premises allowed to store dutiable goods with the duty and GST suspended until they are re-exported or removed for local consumption.

“See admitted that some cans were released for WLNA staff to consume during a company event,” Singapore Customs said.

“He claimed that the rest had expired and were no longer fit for consumption, and were disposed by staff in December 2018 and September 2019 without notifying Singapore Customs.”

This was despite knowing that he needed the approval and supervision of Singapore Customs before he could proceed with the disposal. The duty and GST involved amounted to $16,853 and $1,329 respectively.

For the illegal removal of uncustomed goods, WLNA was fined $26,300 on Dec 1, 2022. It is no longer operating a licensed warehouse.

See had also made use of the licensed warehouse for his personal gain.

Before June 2018, an unknown man had approached him to import and store 25,000 cartons of cigarettes in the premises, with the additional instruction that only 20,000 cartons be declared as imported.

The 5,000 undeclared cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes were later sold for domestic consumption, with See enlisting the help of a former WLNA employee – permanent resident Tang Choy Foong – to make a false declaration.

For carrying out the ruse, See was paid $5,000, which he split with Tang. The duty and GST evaded amounted to $427,000 and $31,394 respectively.

See’s former colleague, Chin Seok Rui, 35, was convicted in court on Sept 26 after pleading guilty to three charges of fraudulent evasion of duty and GST in a separate case.

She had applied for 25 duty payment permits between October 2017 and December 2019 to authorise the release of 7,272 bottles of duty-suspended liquor from WLNA’s licensed warehouse to an importer who paid her the duty and GST in cash.

She then cancelled the permits and pocketed the money from the importer.

To cover up her deception, she included the bottles in 24 export permits that she applied for other customers, as well as edited some of them to remove the additional duty-suspended liquors, before passing the modified documents to the customers.

The total duty and GST evaded amounted to $162,986 and $72,748 respectively.

Her sentencing is scheduled for later this month.

Under the Customs Act, any person who is in any way involved in any fraudulent evasion of duty or GST on imported goods, or involved in the illegal removal of goods from customs control, can be fined up to 20 times the amount of duty and GST evaded, jailed for up to two years, or both.

This applies only to non-tobacco products. For tobacco products, they can be fined up to 40 times the amount of duty and GST evaded, jailed for up to six years, or both.

Those who falsify documents, or make untrue, incorrect, or incomplete declarations can be fined up to $10,000, or the equivalent of the amount of duty and GST payable, depending on which is higher. They can also be jailed for up to 12 months, or both.