Ah, the things you do for Ramly burgers. Though less about living out a fantasy of eating the moist, juicy sandwiches everyday and more about turning a quick profit, a man has been jailed for his attempt to smuggle in 37.8kg worth of beef patties.
TODAY reported that Mohamed Dawood R M Abdul Sukkur was sentenced to nine months in jail and an $8,000 fine, as well as a three-year driving ban.
In June last year, the 48-year-old shot himself into headlines when he gunned his engine at Tuas Checkpoint in a bid to escape from the authorities after realising that officers would discover he was illegally importing meat products. Driving a rented BMW 7-series car, he had been transporting curry puffs and kuehs from Malaysia to sell in Singapore.
He was, however, hiding 105 packets of Ramly-brand beef patties under the spare tyre in the car boot. He had been planning to turn a quick profit during Ramadan, when the patties would be in high demand at pasar malams. He didn’t have a licence to import meat products though.
At Tuas Checkpoint, Dawood declared the curry puffs and kuehs to the authorities, but an officer found discrepancies on his submitted permit and directed him for further inspections. It was then that he realised they would find out about his patty crime, and bolted off from the security checkpoint area at a speed of 142km/h.
Unfortunately (for him), his car broke down near Nanyang Technological University after he over-revved it. He had also dumped the Ramly patties in a drain near the expressway. That in itself is a heinous crime to humanity — how dare he waste such succulent, delicious potential.
In court, the list of charges Dawood possessed were long and varied. He imported a meat product without a licence; perverted the course of justice by disposing evidence; obstructed a Customs officer in the line of duty; and raced above the speed limit.
Arguing in his defence, Dawood’s lawyer maintained that his client suffered a “momentary lapse of judgement” and that the items were meant to help him make a small profit to help sustain his large family (he had ten children).
The Judge, however, said that she appreciated the entrepreneurship, but surely hiding the patties in the spare tyre would have caused health problems.
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