{"id":85261,"date":"2026-09-16T02:37:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T18:37:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=85261"},"modified":"2026-09-16T02:37:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T18:37:19","slug":"first-person-jailed-in-singapore-for-illegal-animal-sales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=85261","title":{"rendered":"First person jailed in Singapore for illegal animal sales"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"text-primary article-summary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">SINGAPORE \u2013<!-- --> The wife of a man linked to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/singapore\/courts-crime\/3-more-alleged-syndicate-members-linked-to-scam-centre-in-cambodia-charged?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\"><span class=\"inline font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"typography-test-id\">Cambodia-based scam syndicate<\/span><\/a> has become the first person here to be given a jail sentence for keeping animals in captivity for sale at unlicensed premises.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Ng Siew Teng, 28, and her husband, Callurn Lim Yuan Jin, 34, were involved in a scheme to illegally import puppies from Malaysia for sale in Singapore.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">On Aug 5, Ng was sentenced to 19 weeks and three days\u2019 jail and a fine of $5,000 after pleading guilty to five charges under the Animals and Birds Act.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Lim was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/singapore\/courts-crime\/jail-for-man-linked-to-cambodia-scam-syndicate-that-targeted-sporeans-victims-lost-over-52m?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\"><span class=\"inline font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"typography-test-id\">sentenced to one year, nine months, 21 weeks and three days\u2019 jail<\/span><\/a> and a fine of $12,000 on Sept 11.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">He must spend another four weeks and 10 days behind bars if he cannot pay the fine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">He had pleaded guilty to multiple charges for various other offences, including two linked to the syndicate and five under the same Act.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The couple\u2019s accomplice, Bryan Peh Jia Hao, 22,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/singapore\/courts-crime\/16-weeks-jail-for-man-who-smuggled-5-pomeranian-puppies-from-malaysia-to-spore-in-car-boot?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\"><span class=\"inline font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"typography-test-id\">was sentenced to 16 weeks\u2019 jail in January<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The National Parks Board (NParks) said in a statement on Sept 15 that the couple had abetted Peh to smuggle puppies from Malaysia to be sold in Singapore.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">In earlier proceedings, the court heard that Lim had approached Peh in October 2023. Lim asked him if he was interested in smuggling the puppies for $250 to $300 per animal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Peh agreed and carried out several illegal importations for the couple\u00a0that\u00a0month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Lim and Ng then kept the puppies <!-- -->in their home<!-- --> and advertised them on Instagram.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Between October and December 2023, they sold 21 puppies and earned around $21,000 in profits.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Their offences came to light on Dec 27, 2023, when Immigration and Checkpoints Authority\u00a0officers conducted a random inspection of Peh\u2019s car at the Woodlands Checkpoint and uncovered five two-month-old pomeranian puppies in the boot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">NParks found that the puppies had been transported under cramped and poorly ventilated conditions that subjected them to unnecessary suffering.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">All five puppies later tested positive for canine parvovirus, a highly contagious disease that can cause severe illness and death in dogs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">NParks did not disclose details about the puppies\u2019 current condition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Separately, Lim was also a member of the Cambodia-based crime syndicate\u00a0behind at least 528 scam cases involving over $52 million in losses between September 2024 and September 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The group in Phnom Penh had conducted government official impersonation scams targeting victims in Singapore.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"font-primary-headline-md-semibold\" data-testid=\"article-subhead-test-id\">Heaviest sentence given<\/h2>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">In an unrelated case, Sundra Pandian, 33, who had kept 13 smuggled animals <!-- -->at his home<!-- -->, pleaded guilty to nine charges under the Animals and Birds Act, and was sentenced to 24 weeks\u2019 jail on Aug 17.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">NParks said in its statement that this was the heaviest sentence meted out to date for keeping animals in captivity for sale at unlicensed premises.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Chow Chee Hoe, 25, who was linked to Sundra\u2019s case, was fined $4,000 on Sept 1.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The authorities had earlier received a tip-off from a member of the public about the sale of illegally imported animals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">On Sept 26, 2025, officers from the Animal and Veterinary Service \u2013 a cluster under NParks \u2013 then arrested Chow for attempting to sell two smuggled dogs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">He had been using several premises as pet shops to sell dogs on behalf of a transnational syndicate that smuggled animals from Thailand to Singapore.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">He would collect these animals from Sundra before meeting prospective buyers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Sundra acted as a runner for the syndicate, and kept the animals at home until buyers were found. The authorities seized 12 dogs of various breeds, including Sundra\u2019s pet rottweiler, and two British shorthair cats from him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The animals were housed in cages and pet carriers stacked up to three levels high within a service yard, for about two to three weeks at a time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">They were let out only for short periods for exercise or when the cages had to be cleaned.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Several of the animals were confined in conditions that restricted their movement, subjecting them to unnecessary suffering.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">One dog tested positive for canine parvovirus, while some of the animals required veterinary treatment after showing signs of ill health.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">NParks did not disclose details about these animals\u2019 current condition.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/singapore\/courts-crime\/woman-is-first-person-in-singapore-given-jail-for-keeping-animals-in-captivity-for-sale\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SINGAPORE \u2013 The wife of a man linked to a Cambodia-based scam syndicate has become the first person here to be given a jail sentence&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":85262,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=85261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/85262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=85261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=85261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=85261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}