Crime

A person who laundered the proceeds not of his own crime but of others’ (hereafter known as a “secondary offender”), cannot be charged as a primary offender for “dealing with property representing his benefits from criminal conduct”, an offence under section 47(1) of the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act (Cap 65A, 2000 Rev Ed) …

A 27-year-old Singaporean male was caught smuggling thirty-two electronic vaporisers and 635 electronic liquid cartridges, said Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) and Health Sciences Authority (HSA) in a joint press release on Thursday (11 July). The authorities stated that ICA’s officers detected six sets of electronic vaporisers (e-vaporisers) and 223 electronic liquid cartridges concealed in an arriving Singapore-registered car’s gear …

Can the contents of a cautioned statement, made in response to an initial charge, be relied on to discredit an accused’s defence against a subsequent and different amended charge? Where an accused person is to be found guilty of a “general offence of attempt”, what is the legal approach to be taken in determining that the accused had “taken steps …

A 39-year-old female Indonesian was arrested for smuggling 109 packets of duty-unpaid cigarettes. In a Facebook post on Tuesday (9 July), Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said that its officer at Singapore Cruise Centre had noticed anomalies in the scanned images of a hand-carried baggage on 5 July. After checking the baggage, the officer then found the cigarettes wrapped in …

Following a suspicious transaction allegedly involving the former president of its Brazilian unit, Sembcorp Marine (SembMarine) lodged a report with the Singapore Police Force’s Commercial Affairs Department (CAD). The Edge Singapore reported that while Martin Cheah Kok Choon, who is formerly the president of Estaleiro Jurong Aracruz (EJA) until Jun 2015 when his employment was terminated, was purportedly involved in …

A 57-year-old man was arrested for his suspected involvement in at least two cases of using counterfeit S$50 notes. In a press release on Monday (8 July), the Police revealed that it had received a report that several pieces of counterfeit S$50 Portrait Series notes were found in the vicinity of Upper Bukit Timah Road. Follow-up investigations were conducted by  …

A 37-year-old Singaporean man was arrested for peddling duty-unpaid cigarettes in an operation conducted by Singapore Customs in Ang Mo Kio Avenue 4 on 2 July 2019. In a Facebook post on Friday (5 July), Singapore Customs said that its officers saw the man handing packets of duty-unpaid cigarettes to two other men and moved in to conduct a check. …

Mohamed Yasin Bin Karuli (42) was sentenced to four years and two weeks imprisonment for running fraudulent timeshare recovery and collective investment scheme businesses. Singapore Police Force (SPF) said in a press release on Wednesday (3 July) that Mohamed Yasin came up with the idea of approaching owners of timeshare memberships and promising to help them recover monies from the …

A total of 7,500 sachets of chewing tobacco were found hidden in a box beneath curry puffs at Tuas Checkpoint on 29 June. Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said on a Facebook post on Tuesday (2 July) that an arriving Malaysia-registered van with a consignment declared as curry puffs was stopped by its officers for further checks. The authority stated …

In a bid to combat cases involving scammers impersonating “Chinese officials” which re-emerged in the first quarter of this year, resulting in S$4.8mil in total being fraudulently obtained from victims, the Singapore Police Force has issued an advisory regarding the modus operandi of such scammers and ways to avoid falling prey to such scams. “Between January and April 2019, 65 …