2 guys founded guilty and imprisoned for importing and having duty-not-paid cigarettes (with pictures)
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A regional male and an inbound male traveler were sentenced to 4 months’ jail time and 6 weeks’ jail time respectively by the Fanling Magistrates’ Courts today (September 3) for importing and having duty-not-paid cigarettes, in addition to for stopping working to state them to Customs officers, in conflict of the Import and Export Ordinance (IEO) and the Dutiable Commodities Ordinance (DCO).
Customs officers obstructed a 48-year-old regional guy, who was bring a batch of products on a bike, for assessment at the Chung Ying Street Checkpoint in Sha Tau Kok on April 10. Upon assessment, an overall of 37 237 sticks of duty-not-paid cigarettes were taken from 8 container boxes of the consignment and a purse brought by the male. The guy was consequently detained. The approximated market price of the duty-not-paid cigarettes had to do with $186,000 and the responsibility capacity had to do with $123,000. He was sentenced to 4 months’ jail time today.
In addition, Customs officers obstructed an inbound 62-year-old male guest at the Lo Wu Control Point the other day (September 2) and took 2 227 duty-not-paid cigarettes with an approximated market price of about $9,100 and a task capacity of about $7,400 from his individual luggage. The guest was consequently detained. He was sentenced to 6 weeks’ jail time today.
Customizeds invites the sentence, keeping in mind that even a novice culprit might still be sent to prison. The custodial sentence has actually enforced a substantial deterrent impact and shows the severity of the offenses.
Customizeds advises members of the general public not to defy the law. Under the IEO, anyone condemned of importing or exporting unmanifested freight is responsible to an optimum fine of $2 million and jail time for 7 years upon conviction.
Under the DCO, anybody associated with handling, belongings of, offering or purchasing illegal cigarettes devotes an offense. The optimum charge upon conviction is a fine of $1 million and jail time for 2 years.
Members of the general public might report any presumed illegal cigarette activities to Customs’ 24-hour hotline 182 8080 or its devoted crime-reporting e-mail account (crimereport@customs.gov.hk) or online type (eform.cefs.gov.hk/ form/ced002).