2 inbound guests founded guilty and imprisoned for importing duty-not-paid cigarettes and alternative cigarette smoking items (with images)
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2 inbound male guests were sentenced to 4 months’ and 5 months’ jail time and fined $1,000 respectively by the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts today (October 24) for importing duty-not-paid cigarettes, stopping working to state them to Customs officers, along with for importing alternative smoking cigarettes items, in breach of the Dutiable Commodities Ordinance (DCO) and the Import and Export Ordinance (IEO).
Customs officers obstructed a 29-year-old and a 30-year-old inbound male traveler at Hong Kong International Airport on August 14. About 29 400 duty-not-paid cigarettes and about 25 800 alternative cigarette smoking items, with an approximated market price of about $197,000 and a responsibility capacity of about $97,000 and about 28 800 duty-not-paid cigarettes and about 43 000 alternative smoking cigarettes items, with an approximated market price of about $247,000 and a responsibility capacity of about $95,000 in overall, were taken from their individual luggage respectively. The travelers were consequently detained. The 29-year-old traveler was sentenced to 4 months’ jail time and fined $1,000 by the court today while the 30-year-old traveler was sentenced to 5 months’ jail time and fined $1,000.
Customizeds invites the sentence. The custodial sentence has actually enforced a substantial deterrent impact and shows the severity of the offenses.
Under the DCO, cigarettes are dutiable products to which the DCO uses. Anyone who imports, handle, has, offers or purchases illegal cigarettes dedicates an offense. The optimum charge upon conviction is a fine of $2 million and jail time for 7 years.
Under the IEO, anybody who imports an alternative smoking cigarettes item into Hong Kong dedicates 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).