| Fadley Faisal |

THE Magistrate’s Court yesterday issued a BND170,147 fine, or two years’ imprisonment in default, to a Malaysian man for failing to correctly declare over 3,000 cartons of alcoholic beverages in the Customs Transit Declaration form.

The incident, which went viral on social media, was brought as a case before Chief Magistrate Pengiran Masni binti Pengiran Haji Bahar yesterday.

The court heard from the Customs prosecutor that Dennies anak Ketok, 32, was nabbed with 3,432 cartons of various brands of beer inside a 40-ft container in tow to a trailer truck he was driving through the Sungai Tujoh Control Post at 8.36am on August 11.

On arrival at the control post, the defendant and his passenger said they had come from Miri, Sarawak, and then filled in the Customs declaration form stating they were carrying fertiliser (baja abok) in transit towards Keningau, Sabah.

The defendant was instructed to drive the container through the x-ray scanner, which revealed suspicious images on the screen. This led to a further inspection of its contents, and the discovery of the contraband items.