So the lone female driver thought she could breeze through the Woodlands Checkpoint without attracting much attention. Why would the ICA officer suspect anything or subject her to a check when she was not carrying any luggage or items in her car? Much to her dismay, her shifty demeanour and uneasiness gave the game away.



The car with the ‘smoky tyres’

2. On 9 July 2009 at about 1830hrs, a lone female driver pulled into the Woodlands Checkpoint. When asked on the purpose of her visit, her evasive behaviour caught the ICA officer’s attention. She was then directed for further checks. In the course of examination, the officers spotted an unusual sign – each of the four running tyres was of a different brand and the tyre rims also had greasy oil stains. The astute officers then sent the car for scanning and detected anomalies through the scanned images in the four tyres.

3. Upon questioning, the 44-year-old Malaysian Chinese admitted that she was carrying contraband cigarettes. One tyre was then pried and indeed, the officers found the loot, packed in various plastic container boxes, lining within the tyres. She was immediately placed under arrest and the car seized.

   

The loot within the four running tyres exposed

4. Disregarding the safety of the driver, the smugglers were bent on trying out new modus operandi to circumvent ICA’s stringent checks. Unfortunately for them, our ever vigilant officers did not let us down when a total of 448 packets of duty-unpaid cigarettes were uncovered from the four running tyres of the car. The potential Customs duty and GST payable for the contrabands amount to about S$5,050 and S$370 respectively.



The ‘smoky’ discovery

5. The female subject confessed that she had agreed to take on the job for RM50 as she was in need of money. She claimed that she met a person by the name of “Ah Meng” who instructed her to drive the car from Johor Jaya and leave it near a Choa Chu Kang hawker centre for a couple of hours. She was assured by “Ah Meng” that the cigarettes would not be easily detected by officers at the checkpoint.

6. The case has been referred to Singapore Customs for further investigations. Upon conviction by the court, first time offenders can be fined up to 20 times the amount of duty evaded and liable to a jail term not exceeding three years. For second or subsequent convictions, offenders can be fined up to 40 times the amount of duty evaded and jailed for up to six years. The offenders also face further fines based on the amount of GST evaded. The car used in conveying the contraband will also be liable for forfeiture.

7. Our borders are our first line of defence in safeguarding Singapore's security. The enhanced security checks are critical to our nation’s security. We have tightened our security checks on passengers and vehicles at the checkpoints to prevent attempts to smuggle in undesirable persons, drugs, weapons, explosives and other contrabands.


IMMIGRATION & CHECKPOINTS AUTHORITY
10 JULY 2009