Andrew Chan Joo Seong, 48, was charged in court on Wednesday (August 19) for keeping 4 tarantulas in his HDB flat at Punggol in 2018.
He had two hair spider species; a Mexican red rump and a Mexican golden rump, which are endangered and protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna or Flora (Cites), as well as two more tarantulas; a Greenbottle blue tarantula and a Brazilian black tarantula, which are wild animals under Singapore’s Wild Annimals and Birds Act.
Chan is also being accused of illegally importing eight other spiders through parcels that were seeized at the parcel post section at the Singapore Post Centre around September 19, 2018.
Chan intends to plead guilty to the 11 charges he is facing under the Endangered Species (Import and Export) Act as well as the Wild Animals and Birds Act.
He will be returning to court on September 16, 2020.
If convicted of possessing or importing a scheduled animal species, Chan could be fined up to S$50,000 for each species, jailed up to two years, or both. The aggregate fine cannot exceed S$500,000.
If convicted of illegally keeping or importing wild animals, he could be fined up to S$1,000 for each animal.