Car-leasing director jailed for more than 5 years over evasion of S$11.1 million in duties, taxes

[SINGAPORE] The Singaporean director of a car-leasing company was sentenced on Wednesday (Sep 30) to more than five years of jail for evading duty and goods and services tax and underpaying the additional registration fee (ARF), which resulted in a total shortfall of S$11.1 million.

Mah Chee Wern, 48, the director of car-leasing firm Karkaunsl Leasing, carried out a multi-year scheme to evade duty, GST and ARF on imported cars, a joint statement by Singapore Customs and the Land Transport Authority (LTA) on Thursday indicated.

Tax dodging

A total of S$1.2 million in duty and GST was unpaid on 866 vehicles imported by the company between January 2017 and February 2022. The cars were sold to local dealers.

Mah pleaded guilty to 18 charges under the Customs Act: 17 for fraudulent evasion of duty and GST and one for falsifying seven payment slips submitted to Customs. Another 48 charges were taken into consideration for sentencing. He now faces about four years and seven months in jail.

Customs investigated the company after finding discrepancies in the declared cost of the vehicles and found two methods of operation.

Mah instructed overseas suppliers to issue invoices understating the cars’ values, allowing the company to make a profit of around S$800 to S$1,500 per vehicle.

Karkaunsl also acted as an import agent for another company, Hybrid Vehicles Singapore (HVS), with HVS asking overseas suppliers to suppress invoice values.

A former director of HVS, 36-year-old Su May Thu from Myanmar, was fined S$418,300 in July 2025 after pleading guilty to the fraudulent evasion of duty and GST on 34 vehicles.

Mah was also sentenced to 21 weeks’ jail for under-declaring car values at the point of registration, resulting in lower ARF payments. 

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He pleaded guilty to two amalgamated charges for providing incorrect vehicle values for 876 vehicles, resulting in an ARF shortfall of S$9.9 million, which he was ordered to repay to LTA.

Under the Customs Act, fraudulent evasion of duty or GST carries a fine of up to 20 times the amount evaded, imprisonment of up to two years, or both.

Under the Road Traffic Act, giving incorrect information affecting the amount of ARF payable carries a fine of up to S$10,000, up to six months’ imprisonment, or both. Maximum penalties are doubled for amalgamated charges, and offenders must repay the shortfall to LTA.