Guilty verdict for tobacco teabag smugglers [1]
Friday, June 24, 2016 - 22:05
Two men of Chinese origin who hid tobacco in tea bags were found guilty of smuggling and failing to declare to Tonga Customs tobacco in excess of the legal limit when the men arrived at Fua’amotu International Airport, in April last year.
The men were returning to Tonga from China and had travelled via Fiji.
Hon Mr Justice Cato on 2 June found Mr Qixiang Huang and Mr Jinbao Liu guilty on both counts, and will sentence them on 8 July.
A third accused, Mrs Yunbing Huang the wife of Liu, was similarly charged but was acquitted after the judge was satisfied that her husband had put the tobacco in her bag without her knowing and he had also filled out her passenger declaration form at the airport.
Mr Qixiang brought in 12.6kg of tobacco, Yunbing 7.5kg and Jinbao had 7.6kg with the intention to defraud Revenue.
The personal concession allowed for a person aged 18 and over to bring to Tonga is 250 grams, which is one sleeve of 10 packets of 20 cigarettes duty-free.
Each had a hand luggage when arriving on 14 April and had sleeves of tobacco within the allowance. It was clear that there were more luggage they had brought from China. On April 16-17 2015, when their luggages arrived authories found the excess tobacco in tea bags, the court was told.
Findings
The judge said on April 14, 2015 at Fua’amotu Airport all accused failed to declare to Customs in their passenger declaration form that he or she was importing tobacco that was in excess of the personal concession.
"I do not believe they would not have taken steps to ascertain what they were required to declare before signing their declarations despite their protest that they were ignorant of its content because of their lack of understanding English."
He said their answers given independently were that the only matters they anticipated Customs were concerned with were explosive materials, food or drugs but not tobacco, which is in my view convenient, he said.
Mr Justice Cato said he did not believe either Qixiang or Liu when they said it was mere coincidence they both imported tobacco into Tonga in tea bags for the same reasons to vacuum pack it so it was compressed and preserved.
He had also heard no evidence that this was common practice among persons from China importing to Tonga or any other country.
"Their explanations were virtually identical and were in my view again not a mere coincidence but contrived. Both men were well aware of the concession."
This case was reported by Fijian authorities in an email to Tonga customs that there were inbound passengers bringing in their luggage a large quantity of tobacco in Chinese tea bags.