SINGAPORE: A court has sentenced a former jewellery salesman to two years’ jail for corruption and abetting in fraudulent claims of Goods and Services Tax (GST) tourist refunds.
Lim Pheck Aun was ordered to pay a penalty of S$724 for his corruption offences and S$27,167 for his GST offences, which is three times the amount of GST defrauded, the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) and Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) said in a joint news release.
The 50-year-old man had been working in a Serangoon Road goldsmith. IRAS said it detected “suspicious” tourist refund claims via the electronic tourist refund scheme (eTRS) system in end 2013.
Investigations showed that Lim had accepted four bottles of DOM and cash from two Indian nationals to make false entries into the eTRS system, even though he knew they had not bought items listed in the receipts.
Lim, along with four Indian nationals and a Singapore Customs Officer, was arrested on Jan 27, 2014.
Lim faced a total of 23 GST evasion charges that amounted to S$23,117 and nine corruption charges that amounted to S$724. He eventually pleaded guilty to six GST evasion charges and three corruption charges.
