Does this lady deserve a lighter sentence?
Li Na, a China national, was detained at Changi Airport in April last year for attempting to smuggle fake goods into Singapore. The quick-witted permanent resident immediately instructed her husband to hide whatever was in their Bugis Village shop, but police later found them in his car boot. For conspiring to obstruct the course of justice, she has been sentenced to two weeks in prison, reports The Straits Times. She also needs to serve a six month-jail sentence for selling fake goods.
It’s not Li’s first arrest. “She had been convicted and fined $12,050 in 2008 for selling fake goods at a shop in Bugis Village and she claimed then to have stopped dealing in fakes,” according to the report. Three years later she moved to a new unit in Bugis Village and, in 2014, started importing counterfeit goods, mostly from China, which she offered only to regular customers.
To get a lighter sentence for her client, Li’s defense lawyer argued that she had already showed remorse by closing her previous shop in 2008 and has not been selling “big ticket” items since — as if that makes it less wrong. He also pointed out that Li has been volunteering at charity homes since 2013 — as if that lessened the severity of her offences. But hey, at least the lawyer tried.
Li is appealing against the total jail term of six months and two weeks, according to the report.
Photo: Streetdirectory.com
