Staff stepped on scales to ensure clients couldn't get deposit back
Slimming company employees stepped on the scales to ensure two clients were heavier than the weight-loss targets they needed to reach to get their deposits back, a court heard yesterday.
"The company's stance was not to let the clients get their refunds."
Leung testified against two therapists Yau Hang-wa, 26, and Kong Pui-tung, 24, who each pleaded not guilty to fraud charges.
In 2009, Yau and Kong allegedly stepped onto the electronic scale, while their two customers were being weighed. The customers were slightly heavier than the target weight after a two-month slimming programme and lost their deposits.
The first client, Desmond Ng Yings, a 36-year-old civil servant, paid a HK$36,000 deposit to join a slimming programme with Easy Fit, a company set up under Royal Bodyperfect. The target was to lose 25 pounds (11.3kg) in two months, to weigh 166.4 pounds (75.5kg) by October 13, 2009.
The other customer, Jacky Tam Cheuk-ki, a 32-year-old transport sector worker, joined the same programme with the goal of losing 20 pounds in two months to weigh 160 pounds by October 16, 2009. His mother paid the HK$24,000 deposit.
The contract promised them a refund of the deposit if they reached the targets. When the clients were "weighed", Ng was just one pound over the target and Tam was three pounds over, said Leung.
Ng and Tam also could not continue with the slimming programme. Leung, who left the company in December 2009 and is now working for Physical Fitness and Beauty, told the court that the refunds would be returned in monthly instalments when clients achieved their target weight.
But people who failed to reach the first target on the date specified, in Ng's case on October 13, this meant the entire deposit would be forfeited.
The staff would get a commission when customer made a purchase, including paying deposits, and some lost their commissions when clients got a refund.
In the programme, customers received treatments two to three times a week, including exercise and seeing nutritionists. Staff would also persuade them to buy other treatments, said Leung.
On October 13, Ng refused to leave because he was denied and opportunity to be weighed again.
Leung then arranged for him to be weighed again in the evening by Yau.
Leung said she saw Yau putting her foot on the scale and also saw Kong do a similar thing when weighing Tam on October 16.The hearing continues before Magistrate Don So Man-lung.
