Sim Lim Square salesmen face cheating charges
Two men involved in a series of cheating offences at a now defunct shop in Sim Lim Square have been offered a reduced bail. Photo: Channel NewsAsia
SINGAPORE — Salesmen from another now-defunct shop at Sim Lim Square, which had appeared at or near the top of a blacklist published by consumer watchdog CASE for several months last year, landed in the dock today (Oct 22) to face cheating offences.
Chung Choon Cheik, 33, the boss of Gadget Terminal that used to be on the second floor of Sim Lim Square, faces eight charges of duping walk-in customers of over S$6,000.
He is accused of, for instance, hoodwinking a customer into believing that a Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 tablet would be sold for S$430 in July last year when this was not the case.
Seven of his charges were for colluding with his salesmen to scam.
Lin Facai, 32, was accused of three counts of abetment to cheat, amounting to S$800. Two charges of conspiring to cheat a sum of S$1,300 were pressed against Justin Chew Chee Kin, 36. Wilson Lim Weisheng, 30, and Tan Wei Ping, 40, each face one count of colluding to cheat customers of S$3,600 and S$150, respectively.
Their alleged crimes were committed from October 2013 to November last year.
The charging of the boss and workers of Gadget Terminal came a week after four employees of the notorious Mobile Air shop, which is now shuttered, were jailed between four and 14 months for cheating offences. Mobile Air owner Jover Chew is scheduled to be sentenced next Wednesday.
For several months last year, Gadget Terminal regularly received among the highest number of consumer complaints lodged with the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE).
Between August and October, for example, it drew 13 complaints, second after Mobile Air’s 25. And from October to December, there were nine complaints against the shop, tied with another shop, Mobile 22.
In December last year, Gadget Terminal was one of two shops that were raided by the police in the aftermath of some high-profile incidents involving Mobile Air — a video clip of a tourist tearfully begging on his knees for his refund was circulated widely, drawing sharp criticism of the shop.
Today, Lin, Chew and Lim indicated that they intend to plead guilty and will return to court on Nov 12. All five men are out on bail.
If found guilty, they can be jailed up to 10 years and fined.
