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Sim Lim salesman jailed 7 months for cheating customers
Jan 6, 2016 6:00am
By RONALD LOH
JAILED: Justin Chew Chee Kin (above), an employee at former Sim Lim electronics shop Gadget Terminal, seen leaving the State Courts after putting up bail.
Jover Chew isn't the only scourge of Sim Lim Square customers.
A salesman of another electronics shop in the mall was punished for cheating customers yesterday.
Justin Chew Chee Kin, 36, who worked for the now-closed Gadget Terminal, was jailed seven months for cheating two walk-in customers of $503.
Justin Chew was the first Gadget Terminal employee to be dealt with.
His former employer, Chung Choon Cheik, 33, and fellow salesmen, Tan Wei Ping, 40, Wilson Lim Weisheng, 30, and Lin Facai, 32, have their cases pending.
Gadget Terminal was set up in August 2013 and was owned by Chung's wife, even though she did not have any part in the business.
The shop was managed by Chung, who hired Justin Chew in April 2014. They targeted walk-in customers and would entice them by offering mobile devices at attractive prices.
After the customer paid for the product, the salesman would get the person to sign a customer service agreement form without explaining its contents. The salesman would then demand more money for an in-house warranty.
Should the customer refuse to pay the additional amount, the salesman would offer the customer two choices: Leave with a cheaper mobile phone, or cancel the transaction and forfeit part of the sum already paid as a cancellation fee.
On Sept 30, 2014, Justin Chew quoted a customer $300 for an Apple iPhone 4S, and then demanded another $480 for the warranty.
The following month, he offered a Xiaomi Mi 4 at $380 to another customer.
After the customer signed an agreement form, Chew told him that the total cost for the phone and warranty was $980.
Court papers said both victims agreed to forfeit $215 and $288 respectively and left the shop without any phone.
They have yet to get back their money.
Gadget Terminal was raided by police in December 2014 and the five accused were charged in court last October.
Yesterday, Deputy Public Prosecutor Muhammad Faizal said both of Justin Chew's victims were vulnerable as they are foreign nationals who were not proficient in English.
He added the salesman did not back down even when the police were called in on both instances, and continued to use the signed form as leverage.
Justin Chew, who was unrepresented, pleaded for leniency, adding in mitigation that he has a family to feed and bills to pay.
District Judge Jasvender Kaur said Justin Chew had carried out a despicable deception on unsuspecting customers.
After sentencing, Justin Chew told the court he only pocketed about $40 from the two instances, only for Judge Kaur to tell him the court had already passed sentence.
The maximum punishment for cheating is 10 years' jail and a fine.
This is the second set of Sim Lim Square staff to appear before the court after former Mobile Air boss Jover Chew and four of his former employees were jailed last year.
JOVER CHEW'S CASE
Gadget Terminal was not the first shop at Sim Lim Square to break the law.
Former Mobile Air owner Jover Chew Chiew Loon was jailed 33 months in November last year for cheating 26 customers of over $16,000.
He also admitted to one count each of criminal intimidation and intentionally causing distress.
The month before, four of his former employees were sentenced to between four and 14 months' jail for cheating.
Kam Kok Keong, 31, Kelvin Lim Zhi Wei, 32, Lim Hong Ching, 34, and Koh Guan Seng, 38, had cheated unsuspecting customers of $16,149 between April 15 and Oct 27, 2014.
Mobile Air came under the spotlight when a Vietnamese tourist was caught on video kneeling in the shop and begging for a refund in November last year. Chew was not charged over this incident.
The month before, the shop was reported to have refunded $1,010 to a customer in coins.
A salesman cried in court yesterday, begging for mercy for cheating two customers at his shop in Sim Lim Square. But the judge dismissed the tears, saying he had no scruples, and sentenced him to 28 weeks' jail.
Justin Chew Chee Kin, 36, formerly a salesman at Gadget Terminal, which has since closed, had pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiring with the shop's boss, Chung Choon Cheik, 33, alias Gavin, to cheat two customers in 2014.
Chew is the first employee to be sentenced; a total of five men from the shop, including Chung, were charged in October last year with scheming to cheat their customers.
A district court heard that Chew started working for Chung, a fellow Malaysian, in April 2014.
Chung allegedly taught his staff to cheat customers. The staff would offer mobile phones at attractive prices. After initial payments were made, they would trick customers into paying more.
On Sept 30, 2014, Chew quoted a Chinese national working here $300 for an Apple iPhone 4S mobile phone. The customer paid and was asked to sign a document, supposedly a two-year worldwide warranty. Chew then told him he had to pay $480 for the warranty.
Chew threatened to fax the document to his office and complain to his employer if he did not pay. The customer called the police.
When the police arrived, Chew said the customer had three options: Pay the $480 for the phone, pay no extra amount but leave with a phone of lower value, or cancel the deal and forfeit part of the sum paid as a "cancellation fee". The customer incurred a $288 cancellation fee.
On Oct 12 that year, Chew quoted a Chinese national studying here $380 for a Xiaomi 4 mobile phone. The student handed Chew a $1,000 note, and was asked to sign for a two-year warranty. Chew then told him the total cost was now $980. The customer called the police when Chew refused to refund the sum.
When the police arrived, Chew insisted the customer pay more or cancel the deal and pay a $294 cancellation fee. This was reduced to $215 after negotiation.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Muhammad Faizal urged the court to impose a stiff sentence of four months' jail per charge, noting that Chew had tried to present both cases as simple contractual disputes.
He said the cheating cases at the shop had created a "deep sense of disquiet" among the public, along with those at another errant Sim Lim Square retailer, Mobile Air.
The DPP noted that the Consumers Association of Singapore had received 2,000 complaints against retailers in Sim Lim Square, Lucky Plaza and People's Park Centre from 2012 to 2014.
In mitigation, Chew, who did not have a lawyer, said he needed to support his family. "I humbly beg for leniency... my family needs me," he said, crying.
But District Judge Jasvender Kaur told him: "You had no scruples in carrying out a despicable deception on unsuspecting customers."
She jailed him for 14 weeks for each charge, with both jail terms to run consecutively.
He could have been jailed for up to 10 years and fined per charge. Last year, Mobile Air's boss and four staff were each jailed four to 33 months for cheating.
