Inbound traveler founded guilty and imprisoned for handling duty-not-paid cigarettes (with image)
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An inbound traveler was sentenced to 4 months’ jail time and fined $2,000 by the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts today (October 23) for handling duty-not-paid cigarettes and stopping working to state them to Customs officers, in breach of the Dutiable Commodities Ordinance (DCO).
Customs officers obstructed the inbound male guest, aged 29, at Hong Kong International Airport on October 21. About 20 700 duty-not-paid cigarettes, with an approximated market price of about $93,000 and a responsibility capacity of about $68,000, were taken from his individual luggage. The guest was consequently detained.
Custom-mades invites the sentence. The custodial sentence has actually enforced a substantial deterrent result and shows the severity of the offenses. Customizeds advises members of the general public that under the DCO, cigarettes are dutiable products to which the DCO uses. Anyone who imports, handle, has, offers or purchases illegal cigarettes devotes an offense. The optimum charge upon conviction is a fine of $2 million and jail time for 7 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 kind (eform.cefs.gov.hk/ form/ced002).