Jover Chew Chiew Loon (pic), the owner of Mobile Air, has been bailed out after being charged with cheating a total of 25 victims at his now-defunct Sim Lim Square shop.
He walked out of the State Courts at around 3.45pm yesterday, after his mother posted S$40,000 (RM107,970) bail.
Chew was charged on 25 counts of cheating involving a total of S$14,449 (RM39,002) and one count of criminal intimidation for threatening to cause a victim’s work permit to be revoked.
The 33-year-old and four other men were arrested by police on Wednesday. The four were also charged yesterday, and faced between one to 15 counts of cheating. Chew, who was represented by lawyer Chia Kok Seng, did not enter a plea. Chia asked for time to take instructions from his client, and a pre-trial conference has been fixed for June 25. Among his accomplices, Koh Guan Seng, 38, was charged with 15 counts of cheating involving S$9,789 (RM26,423). Kam Kok Keong, 31, faces eight charges of cheating involving S$3,710 (RM10,014). Edmund Lim Hong Ching, 33, faces two counts of cheating involving S$1,600 (RM4,318). Kelvin Lim Zhi Wei, 32, was charged with one count of cheating involving S$330 (RM891).
The four men were all unrepresented. They indicated to the court that they would be pleading guilty at a later date. Their case will be heard again on June 19.
Several police reports were lodged in 2014 against Mobile Air for dishonest sales practices.
Customers said they were coerced into buying mobile phones and in-house warranties at inflated prices. “These victims ended up paying for the hand phones at much higher prices or had to pay fees to cancel the deal,” said the police on Wednesday, the day the five men were arrested.
Yesterday morning, Chew, Koh and Kam arrived at the State Courts at around 7.30am in a police van.
Chew and his shop became infamous after a video of a crying Vietnamese tourist begging staff at the shop for a refund went viral last November.
The tourist, factory worker Pham Van Thoai, was initially quoted a price of S$950 (RM2,564) for an iPhone 6 which he wanted to buy for his girlfriend. But he was later asked to pay an additional S$1,500 (RM4,048) for a warranty. Thoai was told that if he failed to pay the additional amount, he would not only lose the S$950 but also the new phone. He went on his knees, pleading with Chew to return his money.
A crowdfunding campaign was initiated to raise funds to buy a new phone for Thoai. About S$15,500 (RM41,839) was raised, with S$1,538 (RM4,151) used to buy an iPhone for him. But Thoai declined the gift, accepting only about S$200 (RM540)worth of food items from Singaporeans.
Chew also came under the spotlight for refunding a woman S$1,010 (RM2,726) in coins, which included one- and five-cent coins that came up to 18kg last October.
The woman from China had turned to the Small Claims Tribunal after Mobile Air charged her an additional S$1,400 (RM3,779) for a mobile phone. Both victims are not among the 25 victims named in the charges on yesterday morning. — The Straits Times/Asia News Network
