SINGAPORE: Singapore Customs and the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) have announced on Thursday (22 March) that the leader of a cigarette smuggling syndicate was sentenced by the State Courts on 22 March 2018 to five years and three months’ imprisonment and a fine of $30 million for masterminding a plan to smuggle duty-unpaid cigarettes out of the Jurong Port into Singapore, and another five months’ imprisonment for bribing a Certis CISCO senior protection officer.
In a joint press release, it was said that Mok Chee Kin, a 50-year-old stateless person, was found guilty of six charges under the Customs Act, and two charges under Section 6(b) read with Section 29(a) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, Chapter 241.
As Mok did not pay the court fine, he will serve another 30 months of default imprisonment, bringing the total imprisonment term to five years and 38 months.
According to the authorities, this is the highest sentence handed down by the State Courts for duty-unpaid cigarette offences since October 2014. On 3 October 2014, another offender was sentenced to three years and six months’ imprisonment and a $14 million fine for dealing in duty-unpaid cigarettes.
Mok, who is a repeat offender, is liable to an enhanced punishment under the Customs Act, which includes a mandatory jail term of up to six years, as well as a heavier fine of no less than 30 times the duty or Goods and Services Tax (GST) evaded. He had been sentenced six years ago, on 15 August 2011, to seven months’ imprisonment for dealing in duty-unpaid cigarettes.
