Sim Lim saga: Five from another shop charged
Gadget Terminal boss and four employees in court over cheating offences
Five men from an electronics shop at Sim Lim Square were charged for cheating walk-in customers yesterday.
Last week, employees from another shop in the same shopping centre were jailed for cheating.
Gadget Terminal boss Chung Choon Cheik, 33, was charged with seven counts of abetment to cheat and one count of cheating.
He allegedly cheated Gadget Terminal customers of a total of $6,300 between October 2013 and September last year.
His employees, Justin Chew Chee Kin, 36, Tan Wei Ping, 40, Wilson Lim Weisheng, 30, and Lin Facai, 32, faced between one and three charges each. Lin was charged with three counts of abetment to cheat, Chew was charged with two, and both Lim and Tan were charged with one count of abetment to cheat.
The five men allegedly committed the offences from October 2013 to November last year while working as salesmen at Gadget Terminal.
In one case between July and Nov 9 last year, Chung allegedly conspired with Lim to dupe Mr Hanif Abu into believing that he could buy one Apple iPhone 6 and two Apple iPhone 6 Plus mobile phones for $3,600.
In another case between April and Oct 12 last year, Chew and Chung allegedly conspired to dupe Mr Gao Erxu into believing that he would pay $380 for a Xiaomi Mi 4 mobile phone. Mr Gao eventually gave them $1,000.
Gadget Terminal was raided by the police last December.
ALERT LIST
It was on an alert list issued by the Consumers Association of Singapore and the Singapore Tourism Board for having the most number of customer complaints.
Lim, Chew and Lin indicated that they intend to plead guilty and will return to court on Nov 12, reported The Straits Times Online.
Chung's case has been fixed for a pre-trial conference on Nov 19. He was offered $20,000 bail.
Lim's police bail has been extended while the others were offered $10,000 bail each. Their passports have been impounded.
The maximum punishment for cheating is 10 years' jail and a fine.
4 from Mobile Air jailed last week
Last Wednesday, four former employees of the now-defunct electronics shop Mobile Air at Sim Lim Square were sentenced to between four and 14 months' jail for cheating.
Between April 15 and Oct 27 last year, 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.
Their employer, Jover Chew Chiew Loon, 33, was slapped with 28 charges. His case will be heard again on Oct 28.
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.
The month before, the shop was reported to have refunded $1,010 to a customer in coins.
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