A director of a building material retailer was convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for two weeks suspended for 12 months today (August 7) at West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts for wrongly accepting payment in the course of supplying renovation material, in contravention of the Trade Descriptions Ordinance (TDO).
Hong Kong Customs earlier received information alleging that a director of a building material retailer was suspected of wrongly accepting payment in the course of business.
After investigation, it was revealed that the director had accepted the payment for ordering a batch of floor and wall tiles which he was unable to supply at the specified period of time and failed to return the payment.
Customs reminds traders to comply with the requirements of the TDO.
Under the TDO, any trader commits an offence if at the time of acceptance of payment, the trader intends not to supply the product or intends to supply a materially different product, or there are no reasonable grounds for believing that the trader will be able to supply the product within a specified or reasonable period. The maximum penalty upon conviction is a fine of $500,000 and imprisonment for five years.
Members of the public may report any suspected violations of the TDO to the Customs 24-hour hotline 2545 6182 or its dedicated crime-reporting email account (crimereport@customs.gov.hk).
Ends/Tuesday, August 7, 2018