SINGAPORE: Hoping to turn a quick profit over the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, a man who tried to illegally import beef patties has been sentenced to nine months’ jail.
Last June, the 48-year-old decided to import cakes, pastries and beef patties for Ramly burgers from across the Causeway. But when he was stopped at Tuas Checkpoint for an inspection, Mohamed Dawood R M Abdul Sukkur realised that the authorities would discover he had no licence for the beef patties, and proceeded to gun the engine and speed off. Dawood’s attempt to flee was foiled after his car broke down. He then tried to get rid of the evidence by dumping the beef patties in an open drain near the Pan-Island Expressway.
Appearing in a district court on Monday (Aug 22), Dawood admitted to importing a meat product without a licence, perverting the course of justice by disposing the beef patties, obstructing a Customs officer in the line of duty and speeding. He also consented to another four charges being taken into consideration during sentencing.
District Judge Lee Poh Choo sentenced Dawood to nine months’ jail and an S$8,000 fine. He was also banned from driving all vehicles for three years, following his release from prison.
According to court documents, Dawood, who runs a car grooming and a food distribution company, had driven into Malaysia in a rented BMW around 7am on June 23 last year. After collecting the food items, he stored 105 packets of beef patties — weighing 37.8kg — under the spare tyre in the car boot. He was planning to supply the traditional cakes and pastries to shops in Singapore, and sell the beef patties to night market booths at Woodlands.
About four hours later, he headed to Tuas Checkpoint to return to Singapore. After clearing immigration, he drove to a clearance area to declare his goods. An officer found that there were discrepancies on the permit submitted by Dawood, and asked her colleague to attend to him. Dawood was then told to drive to an inspection pit for further checks.
But before turning into the pit, he realised that his lack of licence for the beef patties would be exposed. He saw that the vehicle barrier was raised and decided to make a run for it, the court heard. Around 12.30pm, his car broke down near Nanyang Technological University “as the engine had failed due to it being over-revved”.
When the police eventually caught up with him, they found boxes of cakes and pastries on the grass patch beside the car. Dawood later led them to a drain near the expressway, where he had dumped the beef patties.
“Singapore’s borders are the first line of defence against external threats, and any actions such as these at the border cannot be tolerated,” said Deputy Public Prosecutor Mansoor Amir. He added that Dawood had risked bringing in diseases from Malaysia through the illegal importation of beef.
Dawood told the court that he was confused at the Tuas Checkpoint. “Normally, if they want to check me, they will hold my passport…. At that time, I cannot think because the passport was with me. I was really lost and panicked.”
Defence lawyer Noor Mohamed Marican argued that his client had suffered a “momentary lapse of judgement” by panicking and driving away.
The items, he added, were meant to help Dawood “make a small profit to help sustain his family”, which included 10 children. In her sentencing remarks, Judge Lee said: “Entrepreneurship is encouraged but this is certainly not the way to go about it. From start to end, you contravened the law. The manner you kept the (patties) — hiding them in the spare tyre — would have caused health problems.”
