22 weeks’ jail, $7k fine for man caught with more than 21,000 e-cigarettes and pods in van

SINGAPORE - A man who was caught by officers from the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) with more than 21,000 e-cigarettes and pods in a van he had been driving was sentenced to 22 weeks’ jail on July 27.

Desmond Lim De Wen, 45, was also fined $7,000. He pleaded guilty to four charges including the possession of e-cigarettes for sale and offering e-cigarettes for sale.

Another 10 charges for similar offences were taken into consideration for sentencing.

The court heard that Lim was offered a job to buy and re-sell e-cigarette paraphernalia by a person he knew as “Cashcat” on Telegram.

His job required him to drive a van to collect parcels containing the e-cigarettes and load them into the vehicle.

Lim would park the vehicle at the car park near his home in Yishun, and leave the keys to the van by the front right tyre.

He accepted the job as he did not have a full-time job and was in debt, court documents stated.

On Oct 9, 2024, Lim received a call from “Cashcat” to collect the van for a job. He was told to drive to Mattar Road and load boxes of vapes that had been left unattended by the roadside into the van.

Once he had done so, he drove the van back to Yishun and left the keys by the front tyre. He received $50 for the job.

The next day, he was told to drive to Kent Road at about 11.30pm to load more boxes of vapes into the van.

While loading the goods, an unknown man told him he had to pick up more boxes further down the road.

He followed the unknown man’s instructions and drove back to the Yishun carpark, where he was stopped by Singapore Customs officers at about 6am on Oct 11, 2024.

HSA officers who later arrived on scene found seven cartons in Lim’s van, containing 21,078 vapes and related components.

The items were worth more than $234,000, said HSA Senior Prosecuting Counsel Jolene Chia.

Other than helping “Cashcat” collect cartons of vapes, Lim also admitting to selling vapes to his own customers on several occasions between August and September 2024.

For the possession of vapes for sale, an offender can be fined up to $10,000, jailed up to six months, or both.