A fleet owner and his two associates in Singapore were fined by the Land Transport Authority (LTA). The LTA found the fleet owner guilty of “fraudulent evasion of duty” and evading goods and services tax (GST).
The LTA detailed the incident in a report published on their website. According to the report, the man, who is identified by the surname Liang, was fined 1.5 million SGD or 1.74 million AUD. Liang is involved with two business: first, as the owner of JDM Automobile and second, as a partner for Autogallery@JDM.
Liang’s businesses imported 427 vehicles to Singapore for over a year, from January 2019 up to October 2020. For the import of these vehicles, Liang committed “evasion of duty,” failing to pay taxes worth 284,384 AUD. He was also charged with two counts of “fraudulent evasion,” evading GST that amounted to 119,407 AUD. Lastly, the fleet owner faced two fines for giving false information regarding his fleets. Liang plead guilty to all three charges.
LTA’S REPORT
The LTA’s report specified that Liang and “a male Singaporean Permanent Resident, 49” recruited a man named Tan Lye Khim. Supposedly, Tan would play the role of scapegoat if the duo were to be caught. Liang and the 49-year-old man created a company called Smartcar Auto and registered it under Tan’s name. From Smartcar Auto, Liang acquired vehicles at reduced prices. Smartcar Auto also allegedly “prioritised” Liang’s vehicle orders above other customers.
Further inspection of the case revealed that not only did Liang liaise between Tan and the PR but also established several bank accounts under SmartCar. These accounts created the opportunity for SmartCar to be “operate[d] from Automobile’s premises at no cost.” Additionally, Tan pre-signed all cheques and bank tokens for the fraudulent company and passed them to an employee, described as “a 32-year-old female Singapore PR.” Both this female employee and the male PR are facing “court proceedings” and investigations, respectively.
Tan faced fines earlier this year for the same crimes on the import of 983 vehicles from November 2018 to October 2020. He neglected to pay his of 3.6 million SGD (4.17 million AUD) fines. Due to this, Tan was sentenced to “serve 43 months’ imprisonment on default.”
The LTA emphasised that “fraudulent evasion of any duty or GST on imported goods shall be liable on conviction to a fine of up to 20 times the amount of duty and GST evaded and/or jailed for up to two years.” Furthermore, anyone who provides false information related to “the amount of tax chargeable shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding 10,000 SGD, or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months.”
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