Inbound traveler founded guilty and imprisoned for having duty-not-paid cigarettes (with images)
******************************************************************************************
An inbound female traveler was sentenced to an overall of 10 weeks’ jail time and fined $2,000 by the Fanling Magistrates’ Courts today (July 31) for having duty-not-paid cigarettes and stopping working to state them to Customs officers, in breach of the Dutiable Commodities Ordinance (DCO).
Customizeds officers initially obstructed the inbound 82-year-old regional female guest at the Lo Wu Control Point on July 5 and took 1 600 duty-not-paid cigarettes from her individual luggage. The female traveler was consequently detained, charged and launched on bail pending trial. The lady later on returned to Hong Kong at the Lo Wu Control Point on July 24. Custom-mades officers even more took 1 581 duty-not-paid cigarettes from her individual luggage. The female guest was consequently apprehended once again and charged. An overall of 3 181 duty-not-paid cigarettes with an approximated overall market price of about $13,000 and an overall task capacity of about $10,500 were taken in the 2 interceptions.
Custom-mades invites the sentence. The custodial sentence has actually enforced a substantial deterrent impact 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. Anybody 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.
Members of the general public might report any believed 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).