{"id":89415,"date":"2026-10-01T19:24:03","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T11:24:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=89415"},"modified":"2026-10-01T19:24:03","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T11:24:03","slug":"car-leasing-director-jailed-for-evading-s11-1-million-in-duty-and-taxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=89415","title":{"rendered":"Car leasing director jailed for evading S$11.1 million in duty and taxes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div xmlns:default=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" data-testid=\"article-body-container\">\n<p class=\"whitespace-pre-wrap break-words mb-4 md:mb-6\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-component\">[SINGAPORE] The Singaporean director of a car-leasing company was sentenced on Wednesday (Sep 30) to more than five years of jail for evading duty and goods and services tax and underpaying the additional registration fee (ARF), which resulted in a total shortfall of S$11.1 million.<\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-pre-wrap break-words mb-4 md:mb-6\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-component\">Mah Chee Wern, 48, the director of car-leasing firm Karkaunsl Leasing, carried out a multi-year scheme to evade duty, GST\u00a0and ARF on\u00a0imported cars, a joint\u00a0statement by Singapore\u00a0Customs and the\u00a0Land Transport Authority (LTA)\u00a0on Thursday indicated.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"-tracking-5 mb-4 md:mb-6\" data-testid=\"heading-component\">Tax dodging<\/h2>\n<p class=\"whitespace-pre-wrap break-words mb-4 md:mb-6\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-component\">A total of S$1.2 million in duty and GST was unpaid on 866 vehicles imported by the company between January 2017 and February 2022. The cars\u00a0were sold to\u00a0local dealers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-pre-wrap break-words mb-4 md:mb-6\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-component\">Mah pleaded guilty to 18 charges under the Customs Act: 17 for fraudulent evasion of duty and GST and one for falsifying seven payment slips submitted to Customs. Another 48\u00a0charges were taken\u00a0into consideration for\u00a0sentencing. He now faces about four years and seven months in jail.<\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-pre-wrap break-words mb-4 md:mb-6\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-component\">Customs investigated the company after finding discrepancies in the declared cost of the vehicles and found two methods of operation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-pre-wrap break-words mb-4 md:mb-6\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-component\">Mah instructed overseas suppliers to issue invoices understating the cars\u2019 values, allowing the company to make a profit of around S$800 to S$1,500 per vehicle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-pre-wrap break-words mb-4 md:mb-6\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-component\">Karkaunsl also acted as an import agent for another company, Hybrid Vehicles Singapore (HVS), with HVS asking overseas suppliers to suppress invoice values.<\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-pre-wrap break-words mb-4 md:mb-6\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-component\">A former director of HVS, 36-year-old Su May Thu from Myanmar, was fined S$418,300 in July 2025 after pleading guilty to the fraudulent evasion of duty and GST on 34 vehicles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-pre-wrap break-words mb-4 md:mb-6\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-component\">Mah was also sentenced to 21 weeks\u2019 jail for under-declaring car values at the point of registration, resulting in lower ARF payments.\u00a0<\/p>\n<div data-component=\"component-container\" class=\"container px-0 no-print\">\n<div class=\"no-print mb-6 mt-8 border border-gray-200 p-6 md:-mx-8 md:mt-0 md:p-8\" data-testid=\"article-read-more-component\">\n<div>\n<p class=\"mb-6 border-b border-gray-200 pb-4 font-poppins text-4xs font-medium tracking-10 text-gray-600\">SEE ALSO<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"section-related-stories\" class=\"overflow-hidden transition-all duration-300\" style=\"height:0\">\n<div class=\"mb-6\" data-testid=\"article-read-more-individual-card-component\">\n<div data-testid=\"basic-card-component\" data-cueid=\"9412937\" class=\"relative flex flex-wrap items-start gap-4\">\n<div class=\"relative w-[70px] lg:w-[90px] aspect-3x2 order-1 flex-shrink-0\">\n<div class=\"w-full overflow-hidden relative flex\" data-testid=\"article-thumbnail-component\"><a class=\"block h-full w-full\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businesstimes.com.sg\/singapore\/car-dealer-charged-s1-1-million-tax-evasion-case-involving-porsches-ferraris-rolls-royces?ref=article-see-also\" data-discover=\"true\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"relative z-10 h-full w-full object-cover\" src=\"https:\/\/cassette.sphdigital.com.sg\/image\/businesstimes\/6e6f7196f5f8917b7f80e712af2b2fedf5cef56a154055c442c7ea7bc98993c3?w=240&amp;dpr=1&amp;f=webp\" alt=\"Wu, the owner of car dealership Allmotoring.sg, is alleged to have carried out the offences from February 2019 to November 2024.\" width=\"3543\" height=\"2362\"\/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mb-6\" data-testid=\"article-read-more-individual-card-component\">\n<div data-testid=\"basic-card-component\" data-cueid=\"9409873\" class=\"relative flex flex-wrap items-start gap-4\">\n<div class=\"relative w-[70px] lg:w-[90px] aspect-3x2 order-1 flex-shrink-0\">\n<div class=\"w-full overflow-hidden relative flex\" data-testid=\"article-thumbnail-component\"><a class=\"block h-full w-full\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businesstimes.com.sg\/singapore\/motorway-group-boss-michael-lim-charged-evasion-excise-duty-and-gst?ref=article-see-also\" data-discover=\"true\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"relative z-10 h-full w-full object-cover\" src=\"https:\/\/cassette.sphdigital.com.sg\/image\/businesstimes\/f94148047342ec6a182bfc1eb75d505e7d58b07d6f687fbd549e498099f97ac3?w=240&amp;dpr=1&amp;f=webp\" alt=\"Michael Lim founded Motorway, now a diversified automotive group, in 1992.\" width=\"2124\" height=\"1728\"\/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"whitespace-pre-wrap break-words mb-4 md:mb-6\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-component\">He pleaded guilty to two amalgamated charges for providing incorrect vehicle values for 876 vehicles, resulting\u00a0in an ARF\u00a0shortfall of S$9.9 million, which\u00a0he was ordered\u00a0to repay to\u00a0LTA.<\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-pre-wrap break-words mb-4 md:mb-6\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-component\">Under the Customs Act, fraudulent evasion of duty or GST carries a fine of up to 20 times the amount evaded, imprisonment of up to two years, or both.<\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-pre-wrap break-words mb-4 md:mb-6\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-component\">Under the Road Traffic Act, giving incorrect information affecting the amount of ARF payable carries a fine of up to S$10,000, up to six months\u2019 imprisonment, or both. Maximum penalties are doubled for amalgamated charges, and offenders must repay the shortfall to LTA.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesstimes.com.sg\/singapore\/car-leasing-director-jailed-almost-5-years-over-evasion-s11-1-million-duties-taxes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[SINGAPORE] The Singaporean director of a car-leasing company was sentenced on Wednesday (Sep 30) to more than five years of jail for evading duty and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":89416,"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-89415","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\/89415","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=89415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/89416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=89415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=89415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=89415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}