SINGAPORE: The mastermind of an international car smuggling syndicate was sentenced before the State Courts Tuesday to seven-and-a-half years’ jail for his offences.
Malaysian Nyo Ah Hai, 51, faced 172 charges of assisting in concealment or disposal of stolen motor vehicles and one charge of inducing a Singapore customs officer to accept a false passport. The court proceeded with 16 charges, of which Nyo received 27 months’ jail for each of the 15 stolen vehicle charges, and nine months’ jail for the inducement offence.
Nyo was believed to have used Singapore as a base to bring in smuggled cars from Malaysia, to be exported thereafter to countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Cyprus and Kenya.
The 172 smuggled cars cited in the charge sheets were across three organised crime syndicates dating back to April 2008, and the total value of the cars came up to more than S$6.8 million. All cars were stolen in Malaysia.
This is believed to be the first such car smuggling case where the mastermind has been convicted, and one with the most number of cars and the highest value of the smuggled cars combined.
Police arrested Nyo on May 14, 2014, after he arrived at Changi Airport using a false passport bearing the name Lim Chai Kim. Thereafter, seven stolen cars were seized in a warehouse in Penjuru Close, before 21 other stolen cars were recovered at Port Laem Chabang in Bangkok, Thailand.
