Hong Kong gym workers jailed for conning students into buying health club memberships
- Employees sentenced to three weeks in jail for breaking the Trade Descriptions Ordinance
- Officials say case is the first time fitness industry workers have been imprisoned for breaking Hong Kong sales laws
Two gym workers who coerced a pair of students into buying HK$21,000 (US$2,700) health club packages were jailed on Thursday, the first time members of the fitness industry had been imprisoned for breaking Hong Kong sales laws.
The gym workers were sentenced to three weeks in jail by Kowloon City Court for breaking the Trade Descriptions Ordinance. Two other gym colleagues were sentenced to community service for their roles in the scam.
A source at the Customs Department, which prosecuted the case, said this was the first time fitness industry workers had been found guilty of breaking the ordinance.
The defendants were named by the court as fitness coach Au Chuen-shun, 25, and salesmen Cheung Tsz Kin, 22, and Wong Chin-chak and Tam Ka-hei, both 21. They had worked at Go Goal Studios in Mong Kok before the arrest.
Au, Wong and Tam were found guilty of aggressive commercial practices for convincing a 22-year-old student into six training sessions at a cost of HK3,000 (US$380) on March 24, 2018. Cheung was convicted of the charge after he forced a 20-year-old student to pay HK$18,000 (US$2,300) for a membership on April 4, 2018.
On Thursday, Au was ordered to serve 90 hours of community service and Cheung was ordered to serve 120 hours. Wong and Tam, who faced further charges in a separate case, were sentenced to three weeks in prison.
Cheung was also ordered to return HK$18,000 to his victim. The other three must each repay HK$1,000 to their victim.
The court heard the four defendants lured the two students from the street by asking them to complete a survey. The students followed the defendants to the gym, where they provided their identity cards and bank card numbers.
Short-term imprisonment is a suitable sentence for them
The defendants told the students they had “pressed the wrong button” after inputting the transaction. They told the students they must withdraw all the money from their accounts before the transactions went through, the court heard.
The students were then intimidated into handing over most of the cash they withdrew to register in a range of fitness plans.
Defence lawyers pleaded for leniency, citing the relatively small amount involved, the defendants’ young age and their remorse for the crime.
But Magistrate Raymond Wong Kwok-fai refused to let Wong and Tam walk free, citing their poor assessments in their respective probation reports, which revealed the pair had a history with drugs.
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“They were under 21 years of age when they committed the crime, but they had a poor track record,” Wong said. “Short-term imprisonment is a suitable sentence for them.”
The magistrate accepted recommendations by a probation officer to sentence Au and Cheung to a community service order.
In a press release, the Customs and Excise Department reminded business owners to comply with the ordinance’s requirements. They also urged consumers to procure services from reputable brands.
Aggressive commercial practices include harassing, coercing or inflicting undue influence on a consumer to impair his ability to make a transaction under free will. Violators could face as much as five years in prison and a HK$500,000 (US$63,800) fine.
