Woman arrested for smuggling cigarettes in vehicle tyres
SINGAPORE: They may be rendering vehicles unsafe to drive but that is not stopping cigarette smuggling syndicates from tampering with tyres to bring their contraband into Singapore via land checkpoints.
On Thursday, a lone Malaysian woman driver at Woodlands
Checkpoint was found to be shifty and uneasy when questioned about the
purpose of her visit.
Upon further checks, immigration officers noticed that each of the
four tyres on her vehicle were of a different brand and the rims bore
greasy oil stains.
Scanning detected anomalies in the tyres and when questioned, the
44-year-old woman admitted she was transporting contraband cigarettes.
Officers pried the four tyres open and found 448 packets of
duty-unpaid cigarettes in them. Potential customs duty payable amounted
to about S$5,050 while GST evaded was about S$370.
The woman confessed to officers that she had agreed to take on the job for RM50 as she was in need of money.
She said she had been told to drive the car from Johor Jaya in
Malaysia and leave it near the Choa Chu Kang hawker centre in Singapore
for a couple of hours.
If convicted, first time offenders can be fined up to 20 times the
amount of duty evaded and jailed up to three years. They also face
further fines based on the amount of GST evaded.
- CNA/vm
Now got all sort of pattern....