Sim Lim Square saga: Jover Chew out on bail over cheating cases
[UPDATED on Friday, 29 May 2015 at 4:25pm: Added details about Jover Chew being out on bail]
Jover Chew, the owner of the now-defunct Mobile Air, and four other men were charged in court on Friday, 29 May, over a slew of cheating cases that allegedly occurred at the shop at Sim Lim Square Mall.
Chew faces 26 charges, of which 25 are for cheating and one criminal intimidation charge.
He is out on $40,000 bail, according to a Channel News Asia report.
In a Straits Times report, the police said in a statement that the five men were arrested on 27 May for “a series of cheating cases”.
Chew became a controversial figure in Singapore last year after a video of a Vietnamese tourist crying and begging at the Mobile Air shop went viral.
Pham Van Thoai, the tourist who was a factory worker, wanted to buy an iPhone 6 for his girlfriend. He was initially given a quoted price of $950, but was later asked to pay an additional $1,500 for warranty fees.
Edmund Lim, a former Mobile Air employee who took over Chew’s shop after he closed it down, is also one of the men charged. He is out on $10,000 bail, according to Channel News Asia.
Lim and the three others charged intend to plead guilty and will have their hearing on 19 June.
Chew’s pre-trial conference is set for 25 June.
In 2014, several police reports were made against the shop for dishonest sales practices. Customers had said that they were coerced into buying mobile phones and warranties at inflated prices.
The police said the “victims ended up paying for the hand phones at much higher prices or had to pay fees to cancel the deal".
