Hark, the trumpets of justice sing — infamous Sim Lim Square shop owner Jover Chew and four other men have been arrested by the police over a series of cheating cases at the tech mall.
Last year, several reports had been lodged against Mobile Air Pte Ltd for errant sales practices which saw a number of customers being coerced into buying handphones and being lead into signing their name onto in-house warranties at severely inflated prices. They would end up paying for the mobile phones at exorbitant prices or had to pay fees to cancel the deal.
Victims were often left in despair after the transaction, as exemplified in the case of Vietnamese tourist Pham Bam Thoai, who went to Mobile Air Pte Ltd last November to purchase an iPhone 6 for his girlfriend at an initially quoted price of $950, but was later required to pay an additional $1,500 for a warranty. Pham was told by Chew and his cronies that he would the $950 and the phone would be forfeited if the warranty wasn’t paid. A very distressed Pham broke down and begged Chew to return his money, and a video of the heart-rending ordeal went viral online.
Upon receiving the reports, a team of officers from Central Police Division carried out extensive investigations and interviews with a number of witnesses and victims. With all the evidence gathered, the five pricks of Sim Lim Square are scheduled to be charged in court tomorrow.
It was a much happier ending for Pham, whose plight caught the attention of the online community and a crowdfunding campaign was mobilised to purchase the iPhone 6 for him. A total of USD12,431 was raised for him — but the humble man declined to accept the money and channelled them to an orphanage in Vietnam,as well as to a Vietnamese victim of trafficking.
Chew however incurred the wrath of troll site SMRT Ltd (Feedback), who revealed his personal details, including his residential addresses, email, phone numbers and the such, launching a campaign of harassment against the heartless man.
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