WESTERN CAPE. – Hemraj Tamang, a Nepalese national, has been found guilty in the Kuilsrivier Magistrate's Court of the illegal possession of 2 676 bottles of liquor that were destined for export but were repackaged to be sold locally. Hemraj Tamang has been fined R380 000, while a two-year prison sentence has been suspended for five years.
The case came to light after police searched a residence in Kuilsrivier where liquor labels were replaced and the bottles repacked in different boxes. Eric Ntabazalila, NPA spokesman, says Tamang admitted under a plea and sentence agreement that he had bought the liquor from an unknown person. The liquor was removed from a customs warehouse without the required customs and excise tax being paid. The bottles were marked "for export only", but the labels were removed and replaced before the liquor was repackaged for the local market. Cash to the value of R149 890 was seized, along with two cash counting machines and four firearms that were allegedly used in the process. Hemraj and Sumitra Tamang, aged 45 and 49 respectively, were arrested together with four other people.
Tamang must also pay R170 000 into the criminal asset forfeiture account as a condition of the suspended sentence. The court ordered that the liquor and the seized cash be forfeited to the state. Tamang was further fined R2 500, or must serve one year imprisonment, for his illegal presence in the country. The sentence is suspended for five years. Sumitra Tamang, 39, has also been found guilty of illegal presence in South Africa and has been given the same suspended fine. Both face repatriation.
This article is an automatic English translation of a Nuusflits article originally published in Afrikaans. Read the Afrikaans original.
