Jail for man caught with e-cigarette devices

Health Sciences Authority prosecutor Jolene Chia told the court that Jegathiswaran had earlier approached David and asked for a RM5,000 (S$1,600) loan.

She said: “David suggested that the accused assist in delivering illegal items into Singapore in exchange for payment. The illegal items would be concealed among the company’s legitimate delivery items.

“The accused did not know how much he would be paid for the job, only that he stood to be paid when he successfully delivered the items… This would be the first time the accused had knowingly imported something illegal into Singapore.”

Jegathiswaran accepted the offer and picked up a lorry from the company’s compound in Malaysia at or around 4am on Feb 2.

He did not check what was in it and was caught after officers from the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority inspected it later that morning.

On April 16, the prosecutor urged the court to sentence Jegathiswaran to up to 22 weeks’ jail, stressing that his offences involved a large number of illicit items. She added that the quantity of such goods reflected the scale of the offences.

Jegathiswaran, who was not represented by a lawyer, told the court through a Tamil language interpreter that he was facing financial issues at the time and that he was his family’s sole breadwinner.

He also said his father is visually impaired and his mother, who has difficulty walking, has to go for knee surgery.

Before handing down the sentence, District Judge Lim Tse Haw agreed with the prosecutor that the case involved a large number of illicit products. He also said that there was a need to deter foreigners from smuggling such goods into Singapore.