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Singapore

Man fined for having unregistered health products including pills and more than 40,000 condoms for sale

Man fined for having unregistered health products including pills and more than 40,000 condoms for sale

File photo of an emergency contraceptive pill. (Photo: Unsplash / Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition)

SINGAPORE: A man was fined S$32,500 on Thursday (Jul 30) for having unregistered health products including more than 40,000 condoms, contraceptive pills and medical devices for sale.

If he cannot pay the fine, he will have to serve 130 days' jail.

Song Bowen, 27, pleaded guilty to 13 counts of supplying unregistered health products under the Health Products Act, with another 25 charges taken into consideration.

The case was uncovered after Song fell for a set-up, meeting a police officer at a void deck in Yishun to sell him emergency contraceptive pills.

The pills are unregistered health products containing Levonorgestrel, an active ingredient present in prescription-only medicines. It is used as an emergency contraceptive to prevent pregnancy after unprotected sex, and no more than four tablets can be taken per month, said the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) prosecutor.

The officer bought a tablet for S$20 and later sent him a message asking to buy more of the tablets and to see other brands of contraceptive tablets.

Song took three types of contraceptive pills and met the officer again outside Song's Yishun flat.

However, the officer identified himself as a police officer, arrested Song and seized the tablets.

HSA officers raided Song's flat that day and found an assortment of unregistered health products including thousands of condoms and "therapeutic products".

The seized items included multiple brands of condoms, with between 3,980 and 7,700 pieces per brand.

Song admitted that he intended to sell each box of 10 condoms for S$10.

The defence asked for community-based sentences, adding that Song had not made profits from the condoms at the point of his arrest.

At this, the judge asked the prosecutor how many condoms in total were seized.

When told it was 40,000, he said: "40,000! What sort of inference is the court supposed to draw, with the fact that he has 40,000 condoms in his possession?"

He said that Song had possessed the items for the purpose of selling them.

Song is studying part-time at a university and works full-time at an engineering company, his lawyer said. He has to remit money to China for his family and has to pay tuition fees and rental, said the lawyer, asking for the fine to be paid in instalments.

The judge granted his request to pay in instalments by May next year. The seized condoms and pills were forfeited for disposal.

For each charge of supplying an unregistered health product, Song could have been jailed for up to two years, fined up to S$50,000, or both.

Source: CNA/ll(nc)

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