by Elena Chong
A FISH farm operator was jailed a day and fined a total of $13,000 on Wednesday for smuggling in birds and a ferret at the sea off Lim Chu Kang last October.
Chan Keng Hee, 49, pleaded guilty to importing 84 live birds mainly the mata puteh and the red whiskered bulbul and the domestic ferret from Malaysia without a licence on Oct 15.
A Community Court heard that Police Coast Guard officers saw Chan's fishing vessel alongside a Malaysian boat and two styrofoam boxes being transferred from the Malaysian vessel to his vessel at about 5.55am that day. Officers stopped Chan at the Lim Chu Kang public jetty and found the animals and birds in the styrofoam boxes.
Investigation showed that Chan was licensed to operate a fish culture farm and had a fishing vessel to convey his fish to shore and his daily needs from shore to his farm. On Oct 14 he received a call from a Malaysian contact to help him ferry the animals and birds from the international waters into Singapore.
He had paid RM5,000 (S$2,093) to the Malaysian boatman for the animals and birds. He admitted that he had smuggled in an unknown number of mata puteh birds in the same manner two months earlier.
Another charge of importing a radiated tortoise was taken into consideration. He could have been fined up to $10,000 and/or jailed for up to 12 months on each charge.