Two Tuen Mun tenants evicted in clampdown on parallel trading
Special teams set up to find premises breaching lease conditions by selling retail merchandise
The tenants of two units of a Tuen Mun industrial building are being evicted over suspected parallel trading activities.
The Lands Department said the two units at Mai Kei Industrial Building were used for purposes other than industrial and they were in violation of the lease conditions. As landlords, the department evicted the tenants after repeated warnings.
The move came as reported yesterday that 60 per cent of the 33,000 parallel traders punished by Shenzhen authorities in the past four years were Hongkongers.
One of the tenants, Ms Lee, who runs baby products shop Kissbaby, said she rented the unit last August and denied that it was a warehouse for parallel trading.
"We only sold products to mothers, like non-staple foods, nappies and baby milk formula," she said, adding that she did not know it was a breach of the lease if the business was involved in retail sales.
The other evicted tenant, named eCosway, sells household products. There are notices posted outside the unit that say "We are open" and they sell "Hong Kong products".
A spokesman for the department said both tenants violated land lease conditions and two warnings were given early this month.
