Retiree jailed two weeks for illegally importing replica weapons
Published on Oct 8, 2014 4:33 PM
By Ian Poh
<iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ekbGOdMeiQc?rel=0&showinfo=0" allowfullscreen="" height="315" width="560" frameborder="0"></iframe>
SINGAPORE - In April last year, retiree Lee Chee Kum was jailed for six weeks after he accidentally shot a neighbour with an air rifle in 2012. He was also fined $5,000 for possessing an arsenal of illegal weapons, including the air rifle, with air guns not allowed here without a licence issued by the Police Licensing and Regulatory Department.
On Wednesday, the 52-year-old was jailed again, this time for two weeks, for importing 15 replica weapons only five months after the earlier convictions.
The court heard that Lee had brought in the weapons - including 12 guns and three rifles - after trips to Bangkok, Thailand, on Sept 17 and Oct 8 last year.
He was found out after the second occasion, when an immigration officer checked Lee's luggage and found the guns. Lee, who had abandoned his bag in the arrival hall and left the airport after being told it was to be scanned, was arrested on Oct 12 after returning and admitting that he had wanted to "try his luck".
On a hunch, police then questioned Lee over three air rifles that had been discovered at the bottom of Upper Seletar Reservoir the same day.
Further investigations revealed that Lee had managed to bring the guns through immigrations, but Lee's brother threw them into the water, to make good on an earlier promise he had made to dispose of any illegal weapon Lee had persisted in buying.
For each charge of importing the weapons, Lee could have been jailed for up to three years and fined up to $10,000.
