\n<\/p>\n
SINGAPORE: A company director has been fined over S$1 million (US$780,000) and sentenced to two months’ jail for various offences related to under-declaring the value of imported vehicles.<\/span><\/p>\n Thiyambarawatta Subash Indrajith, 59, the director of car firm Concordway, pleaded guilty to nine charges under the Customs Act, which involved evading more than S$160,000 worth of duty on 34 imported vehicles between October 2018 and February 2024.<\/span><\/p>\n The jail term and fine were imposed in the State Courts on Apr 24, Singapore Customs and the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said in a joint statement on Tuesday (May 5).<\/span><\/p>\n The S$1,068,000 fine was imposed for fraudulently evading the duty, while the two months’ jail term was imposed for under-declaring the values of 21 vehicles at the point of registration with LTA, leading to over S$1 million in underpayment of the additional registration fee.<\/span><\/p>\n He was ordered to repay the outstanding amount to LTA and has until May 25 to pay the fine for his Customs offences. Should he fail to pay the fine, he will serve 12 months and two weeks\u2019 jail in default.<\/span><\/p>\n Concordway is an importer of motor vehicles from overseas suppliers in Japan and the United Kingdom, and also provided services to customers wanting to source and import vehicles from overseas suppliers through Subash\u2019s contacts.<\/span><\/p>\n Customs began investigations after an individual importer of a Porsche 718 Cayman Style Edition submitted documents stating a suspiciously low declared value.<\/span><\/p>\n Based on information obtained from this importer, Customs officers searched Subash\u2019s residence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n He then admitted to assisting clients in importing vehicles for commissions of S$3,000 to S$4,000 by liaising with overseas suppliers to provide invoices with suppressed values significantly lower than the actual vehicle prices.<\/span><\/p>\n The false invoices were then submitted to customs as supporting documents for their import.<\/span><\/p>\n To conceal the money trail, payments were split into two transactions: A suppressed payment corresponding to the declared value and a balance payment, which was the difference between the actual and declared values.<\/span><\/p>\n Subash would also remit lump sums to overseas suppliers to cover balance payments for multiple vehicles in order to avoid detection.<\/span><\/p>\n For fraudulently evading duty on imported goods, Subash faced a fine of up to 20 times the amount of duty evaded, up to two years\u2019 jail or both.<\/span><\/p>\n For giving incorrect information in relation to any matter affecting the additional registration fee chargeable, he may have been fined up to S$10,000 or faced a jail term of up to six months, in addition to the payment of any under-charged fees.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\nTHE CASE<\/span><\/h2>\n