Public Prosecutor v Wong Jing Ho, Samuel

• Jurisdiction: Singapore
• Judge: Luke Tan
• Judgment Date: 09 December 2020
• Neutral Citation: [2020] SGDC 282
• Court: District Court (Singapore)
• Docket Number: District Arrest Case No 920663 of 2020 & Anor, Magistrate’s Appeal No 9882/2020/01
• Published date: 22 December 2020
• Year: 2020
• Hearing Date: 24 November 2020,23 November 2020
• Plaintiff Counsel: Ms Zoe Tan
• Defendant Counsel: The accused in person
• Subject Matter: Criminal Law and Sentencing,Sentencing,Customs Act
• Citation: [2020] SGDC 282

District Judge Luke Tan: Introduction

The accused, Wong Jing Ho, Samuel is a 32-year-old male Singaporean. He was caught dealing with twelve cartons of duty unpaid cigarettes. For his actions, he faced the following two charges: DAC 920663/2020 [“excise duty charge”]

You….are charged that you, on the 10th day of October 2020, at about 7.07p.m., in the vicinity of Block 122 Bukit Batok Central, Singapore, were concerned in dealing with uncustomed goods, to wit, 12 cartons x 200 sticks of Texas 5 brand duty unpaid cigarettes, weighing 2.180 kilogrammes, on which excise duty of $1,024.80 was not paid, with intent to defraud the Government of the excise duty thereon, and you have thereby, committed an offence under section 128I(1)(b) of the Customs Act (Cap 70) punishable under section 128L(4) of the same Act.

DAC 920664/2020 [“GST charge”]

You…. are charged that you, on the 10th day of October 2020, at about 7.07p.m., in the vicinity of Block 122 Bukit Batok Central, Singapore, were concerned in dealing with uncustomed goods, to wit, 12 cartons x 200 cartons of Texas 5 brand of duty unpaid cigarettes, weighing 2.180 kilogrammes, valued at $1,185.36 on which the Goods and Services Tax of $82.98 was not paid, with intent to defraud the Government of the tax thereon, 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 Tax (Application of Customs Act) (Provisions on Trials, Proceedings, Offences and Penalties) Order (Cap 117A, Order 5), committed an offence under section 128I(1)(b) of the Customs Act (Cap 70) punishable under section 128L(4) of the same Act.

Before me, the accused, pleaded guilty to both charges. Having considered the facts of the case, the sentencing submissions and the mitigation plea, as well as the relevant case law and sentencing precedents, I imposed a 9-week imprisonment sentence for the excise duty charge, and a 1-week imprisonment for the GST charge. Both sentences were ordered to run concurrently for a global sentence of 9 weeks’ imprisonment. The accused being dissatisfied, has filed an appeal against the sentence.

I now give my detailed grounds of decision.

Statement of Facts

The accused admitted to the Statement of Facts (SOF) without qualification. I have reproduced the contents of the SOF below, with some parts highlighted in bold italics for emphasis.

STATEMENT OF FACTS

The accused is Wong Jing Ho, Samuel, NRIC No: SXXXXXXX, 32 years old (DOB: 11/08/1988), Male, Singaporean (“B2”). Facts pertaining to the 1st and 2nd charges (DAC-920663-2020 & DAC-9206642020) 2 On 10th October 2020, from about 3.23 p.m., Customs officers (“the officers”) conducted an operation in the vicinity of Block 122 Bukit Batok Central, Singapore to look out for activities involving duty unpaid cigarettes. On the same day, at about 7.07 p.m., officers sighted one Chan Choon Kuin (“B1” – dealt with separately) handing over a visibly filled red plastic bag over to the accused at the said location. At this juncture, suspecting that duty unpaid cigarettes were involved, officers moved in and declared office to the accused and B1. Upon seeing the officers, the accused attempted to flee whilst still carrying the said red plastic bag. Officers gave chase and managed to detain the accused. At the same time, officers also detained B1. Upon checking the red plastic bag in the presence of the accused, officers found a total of 12 cartons x 200 sticks of Texas 5 brand of duty unpaid cigarettes (“C1”) in the red plastic bag. The accused admitted knowledge and ownership of the duty unpaid cigarettes found, and further admitted that he had just received C1 from B1. C1 and the red plastic bag were seized as case exhibits accordingly. Investigations Findings 3 Investigations revealed that since October 2019, the accused had been purchasing duty unpaid cigarettes from one “yaozhenxi521YS” via the “WeChat” mobile application. The duty unpaid cigarettes were sold by “yaozhenxi521YS” at either $39 to $50 per carton of duty unpaid cigarettes depending on the brand; or at a bulk order price of $39 per carton, with a minimum order of 10 cartons of duty unpaid cigarettes. After completing his first purchase with “yaozhenxi521YS”, the accused started consolidating duty unpaid cigarettes orders from 3 of his friends and had also set up a “WhatsApp” group chat named as “Stock Up” with all 4 of them in it to facilitate communication on their duty unpaid cigarettes orders. The accused would first inform his friends of the duty unpaid cigarettes variants via the group chat and would charge them $50 per carton of duty unpaid cigarettes. The accused’s friends would then inform him of the quantity and variant of duty unpaid cigarettes they wish to purchase and pay the accused the amount due. The accused would then consolidate their orders together with his own order and then place the consolidated order with “yaozhenxi521YS” via the “WeChat” mobile application. “yaozhenxi521YS” would then arrange for the order to be delivered to the accused by unknown persons. After receiving the duty unpaid cigarettes, the accused would inform his friends to proceed to his residence to collect the cigarettes. 4 On the afternoon of 9th October 2020, the accused ordered C1 from “yaozhenxi521YS”. C1 was a consolidated order comprising the accused’s own order of duty unpaid cigarettes together with his friends’ orders of duty unpaid cigarettes. On 10th October 2020, at about 6.00 p.m., the accused received a phone call, informing him that his order of duty unpaid cigarettes would be delivered to him at Block 122 Bukit Batok Central, Singapore at about 7.00 p.m. At about 7.07 p.m., the accused met up with the delivery man, later established to be B1, and collected C1 kept in a red plastic bag from B1. The accused handed a cash amount of SGD$468 to B1. As the accused was walking off carrying C1 with him, officers moved in and detained both the accused and B1; and found the said duty unpaid cigarettes. Excise duty and Goods and Services Tax (“GST”) leviable 5 The accused knew that the excise duty and the GST leviable on the seized cigarettes, that is C1, were unpaid at the material time the offence was committed. 6 The excise duty leviable on the seized cigarettes, that is C1, weighing a total of 2.180 kilogrammes, in the 1st charge is $1,024.80. The GST leviable on the same cigarettes in the 2nd charge, valued at $1,185.36 is $82.98. 7 By virtue of the foregoing, the accused was thus concerned in dealing with uncustomed goods (duty unpaid cigarettes), and the accused stands charged accordingly. Prescribed Punishment

In respect of the excise duty charge and the GST charge, both involving the 2.018 kg of tobacco product, the prescribed punishment for these offences is set out in section 128L(4) of the Customs Act. Specifically, for each charge, the prescribed punishment is: A fine of: not less than 15 times the amount of the excise duty, excise duty or tax the payment of which would have been evaded by the commission of the offence, subject to a minimum of $1,000; and not more than 20 times the amount of the excise duty, excise duty or tax the payment of which would have been so evaded or $10,000, whichever is the greater...