3 inbound travelers founded guilty and imprisoned for importing duty-not-paid cigarettes (with pictures)
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3 inbound travelers were sentenced to 3 to 10 months’ jail time and fined $1,000 each by the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts today (April 23) for importing duty-not-paid cigarettes and stopping working to state them to Customs officers, in breach of the Dutiable Commodities Ordinance (DCO).
The very first case invloved a 40-year-old inbound male guest. Throughout custom-mades clearance, Customs officers took 145 000 duty-not-paid cigarettes, with an approximated market price of about $652,500 and a responsibility capacity of about $479,300, from his individual luggage at Hong Kong International Airport on April 14. The guest was consequently apprehended. He was sentenced to 10 months’ jail time and fined $1,000 today.
The 2nd case included a 20-year-old inbound male traveler. Throughout custom-mades clearance, Customs officers took 64 400 duty-not-paid cigarettes, with an approximated market price of about $322,000 and a responsibility capacity of about $212,900, from his individual luggage at Hong Kong International Airport on April 21. The guest was consequently jailed. He was sentenced to 6 months’ jail time and fined $1,000 today.
The 3rd case included a 29-year-old inbound male guest. Throughout customizeds clearance, Customs officers took 12 588 duty-not-paid cigarettes, with an approximated market price of about $56,600 and a responsibility capacity of about $41,600, from his individual luggage at Hong Kong International Airport the other day (April 22). The guest was consequently apprehended. He was sentenced to 3 months’ jail time and fined $1,000 today.
Customizeds invites the sentences. The custodial sentences have actually enforced a significant deterrent impact and show the severity of the offenses.
Custom-mades advises members of the general public that under the DCO, cigarettes are dutiable items to which the DCO uses. Anybody 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 thought 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).