Public Prosecutor v Ong Swee Cheng

• Jurisdiction: Singapore
• Judge: Toh Yung Cheong
• Judgment Date: 11 September 2006
• Neutral Citation: [2006] SGDC 201
• Court: District Court (Singapore)
• Year: 2006
• Published date: 27 September 2006
• Plaintiff Counsel: Leo Yik Chian (Customs Prosecutor)
• Defendant Counsel: Accused in person
• Citation: [2006] SGDC 201

11 September 2006 Judgment reserved.

District Judge Toh Yung Cheong

1. The accused, Ong Swee Cheng, pleaded guilty to the following two charges relating to the smuggling of cigarettes into Singapore:

DAC 38276/06

You, Ong Swee Cheng, are charged that you, on or about the 23^rd day of August 2006, at about 5.45pm, at the Arrival Bus Concourse, Tuas Checkpoint, Singapore, were concerned in the importation of uncustomed goods from Johor Bahru (West Malaysia) into Singapore in a Singapore registered bus registration number PA 9118R, to wit, 2,600 cartons x 200 sticks of assorted brands of duty unpaid cigarettes, weighing 520.00 kilogrammes altogether and on which the Excise duty of $183,040.00 was not paid, and you have thereby committed an offence under Section 130(1)(a) of the Customs Act (Cap70) punishable under Section 130(1)(iii) of the same Act.

DAC 38275/06

You, Ong Swee Cheng, are charged that you, on or about the 23^rd day of August 2006, at about 5.45pm, at the Arrival Bus Concourse, Tuas Checkpoint, Singapore, were concerned in the importation of uncustomed goods from Johor Bahru (West Malaysia) into Singapore in a Singapore registered bus registration number PA 9118R, to wit, 2,600 cartons x 200 sticks of assorted brands of duty unpaid cigarettes, weighing 520.00 kilogrammes altogether and valued at $234,000 and on which the Goods and Services Tax of $11,700.00 was not paid, and you have thereby, by virtue of Sections 26 and 77 of the Goods and Services Tax Act (Cap 117A), paragraph 3 of the Goods and Services Tax (Application of Legislation Relating to Customs and Excise Duties) Order (Cap 117A, Order 4) and paragraph 2 of the Goods and Services (Application of Customs Act) (Provisions on Trials, Proceedings, Offences and Penalties) Order (Cap 117A, Order 5), committed an offence under section 130(1)(a) of the Customs Act punishable under section 130(1)(iii) of the same Act.

2. I sentenced the accused to a total of 5 years imprisonment. As the accused lodged an appeal against his sentence on 2 September 2006, I will now set out the reasons for my decision.

Facts

3. On 23 August 2006, at about 5.30pm, Immigration and Checkpoint Authority (ICA) officers on duty at the Tuas Checkpoint stopped a Singapore-registered bus driven by the accused. The bus was brought to the inspection pit for a thorough search.

4. At about 5.45pm, ICA officers found a total of 2,600 cartons (each containing 200 sticks) of duty unpaid cigarettes hidden in the luggage and wheel arc compartments of the bus. The matter was referred to Singapore Customs for investigations.

5. The accused admitted that he knew that he was transporting duty-unpaid cigarettes in the bus. The accused was paid by an unknown Malaysian man known as “Ah Mo” to drive an empty bus into Malaysia. A Malaysian smuggling syndicate would load the bus with cigarettes and hide them in the luggage and wheel arc compartments to avoid detection by the authorities. The accused was supposed to drive the bus with the hidden cigarettes from Malaysia to the roadside at Raffles Marina Country Club in Singapore whereupon someone would take delivery of the cigarettes. The accused was paid about $500 for every successful smuggling job.

Sentence

6. The prescribed punishment for the two offences which the accused was convicted on is found in s.130(1) of the Customs Act (Cap 70):

a) Where the goods consist wholly or partly of tobacco products and such tobacco products exceed 2 kilogrammes in weight, a first offender is liable to a fine of not less than 15 times the amount of the Customs duty or tax and not more than 20 times the amount of the Customs duty or tax or $10,000 whichever is the greater, or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years or to both.

7. For the first charge, the excise payable on the cigarettes was $183,040.00. Therefore, the accused was liable to a fine between $2,745,600.00 and $3,660,800.00 or to imprisonment for up to 3 years or both.

8. For the second charge, the Goods and Services Tax payable on the cigarettes was $15,298.65. Therefore, the accused was liable to a fine between $175,500.00 and $234,000 or to imprisonment for up to 3 years or both.

9. In addition the default sentences which the court can impose for non-payment of a fine are set out in section 119 of the Customs Act. For the present charges, if fines were imposed, the maximum default sentence that the court can impose is 6 years for each charge.

Antecedents

10. The accused has no previous convictions.

Mitigation

11. The accused stated he did not know the quantity of cigarettes hidden in the bus. He also added that he was a sole breadwinner with two children. His father had passed away while his mother was old. In addition, he owed loansharks money.

My decision

12. In Moey Keng Kong v PP [2001] 4 SLR 211 and Chew Gim Ser v PP [2005] 1 SLR 201, the High Court set out the factors that were important in determining the appropriate sentence in cases involving the importation of uncustomed goods:

a) The amount of duty evaded;

b) The quantity of goods involved;

c) Repetition of the offence;

d) Whether the offender was acting on his own or was involved in a syndicated operation; and

e) the role of the offender.

13. In the present case, the amount of duty evaded and the quantity of goods involved was 679.94kg, which was by all accounts a huge amount. On the other hand, there was no evidence that he had repeated this offence many times so this aggravating factor was lacking.

14. Another significant sentencing factor was that it was clear that the cigarettes originated from a syndicate that was trying to smuggle them into Singapore for resale at a handsome profit. The accused was acting on behalf of the syndicate in return for...