Man Fined $32.5K for Selling Unregistered Contraceptive Pills & Having Over 50K Unregistered Condoms

Did you know that it’s illegal to sell contraceptive pills in Singapore?

Yes, so if you’re inspired by the various YouTube ads telling you how you can get rich by reselling stuff on the internet, don’t go near contraceptive pills or condoms.

This is a lesson that a Singapore permanent resident learnt…the hard way.

Man Fined $32.5K for Selling Unregistered Contraceptive Pills & Having Over 50K Unregistered Condoms

Song Bowen is a Singapore PR who works in Singapore at an engineering company and studies part-time at the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS).

He also moonlights as the guy to go to if you want to buy a condom or contraceptive pills.

Unregistered ones, that is.

On 9 Apr 2019, Song was approached by a man looking to buy a contraceptive pill.

This man was actually a Field Investigation Officer attached to the Serious Sexual Crime Branch of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

He bought a pill off him for $20.

A few minutes after the first transaction, the officer messaged Song again, saying he wants to buy another pill, as well as browse through the other “wares”.

Thinking nothing of it, Song met the officer outside his unit with the tablets.

That was when the officer arrested him and confiscated the pills.

More Than 50,000 Condoms

After his arrest, the officer confiscated 30 tablets. The tablets reportedly contained Levonorgestrel, an ingredient in prescription-only medicines.

The ingredient is used in “emergency contraceptive to prevent pregnancy” and is only available by prescription.

A person can take no more than 4 of them a month.

Health Sciences Authority (HSA) officers also raided his unit where they found 53,940 pieces of condoms from different brands.

He confessed that he had wanted to sell them at $10 a box, with each box containing 10 pieces of condoms.

Sentencing

Song’s lawyer had asked for the possibility of community-based sentencing.

According to a document from the States Court, community-based sentencing (CBS) consists of:

• Mandatory Treatment Order (MTO)
• Day Reporting Order (DRO)
• Community Work Order (CWO)
• Community Service Order (CSO)
• Short Detention Order (SDO)

Once a CBS is successfully completed, the offender will have no record of his conviction.

Unfortunately, District Judge (DJ) Adam Nakhoda said that while community-based sentencing is possible given his offences, he does not accept that “he (Song) only played a physical role of storage of product”.

Song’s lawyer also pleaded that he only earns $2,000 a month from his full-time job but has to pay $600 rent every month and $2,000 in tuition fees every month.

He is also supporting his fiance and child back in China.

In the end, Song was slapped with a $32,500 fine; he has to pay half of the amount upfront and pay off the remaining amount in 12-month instalments.

As for why supplying illegal contraceptives is so serious, it’s could be because:

1. He’s illegally supplying prescription-only medicine that could be dangerous to anyone who consumes them improperly
2. It’s illegal for people under 16 years old to purchase contraception here because the age of consent is 16 years old and it’s highly likely that illegal sellers won’t be picky about the age of their customers.