Former owner of Kay Lee Roast Meat jailed, fined for evading S$55,000 in taxes

​The original owner of the popular Kay Lee Roast Meat chain of restaurants has been jailed and fined after he was convicted of evading nearly S$55,000 in income taxes, the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) said on Monday (Aug 29).

Ha Wai Kay, 64, was the owner of the chain before he sold it to the Aztech Group for S$4 million in 2014. By under-declaring his sales by more than S$325,000 in 2009 and 2010, Ha was able to evade taxes amounting to S$54,917.15, IRAS said.

He was sentenced to four weeks’ jail and fined S$164,751.45, three times the amount of tax evaded.

Ha’s wife Kong Kuee Chin, 69, the owner of Wan Tat Eating House, was convicted of helping him evade taxes. She was also sentenced to four weeks jail and fined the same amount of S$164,751.45 for assisting in tax evasion.

Two further charges of income tax evasion were taken into consideration for Ha and Kong, respectively. Ha and Kong pleaded guilty and made full payment of the income tax evaded, IRAS said.