VCD sales getting pretty agressive...
Tourist beaten up for not buying Salesman jailed for attack on customer
CLIFF BUDDLE
04/18/98
South China Morning Post
Page 3
(Copyright 1998)
A salesman who attacked an American tourist when she refused to succumb to his hard-sell tactics was jailed yesterday for behaviour which "threatened to ruin Hong Kong's reputation in the tourist industry".
Chan Mo-kong, 22, flew into a rage when his sharp sales tactics backfired and Carolyn Fok, 21, pulled out of the purchase of a video compact disc player, the Court of First Instance heard.
He struck her on the scalp, and smashed a telephone handset against her forehead, causing her to black out briefly.
Chan then pushed her in the chest and shoulder before chasing her out of the shop in Tsim Sha Tsui's Peking Road.
He was ordered to begin serving a four-month prison term yesterday after Mr Recorder Robert Kotewall rejected his appeal.
Ms Fok visited the Best Choice Video and Laser Company on December 12 and agreed to buy a Hitachi VCD player which Chan told her would cost $1,200 or $1,300. While waiting for the transaction to be processed, Chan tried to persuade her to buy a more expensive model.
The shopper said that seeing as the one she had agreed to buy was "no good", she wanted to cancel the purchase altogether.
When Chan told her the sale had already gone through but refused to give her a receipt, she picked up a telephone to call the police.
It was then that he lashed out and drove her out of the shop.
Chan was jailed for four months by magistrate Susanna Lee in January but released on bail pending an appeal.
Explaining the reasons for the jail sentence, Ms Lee said: "If attacks were encountered on every occasion a tourist refused to be talked into buying expensive merchandise, no doubt such behaviour would ruin Hong Kong's reputation in the tourist industry."
Chan's barrister, Paul Loughran, appealed against the sentence and said the magistrate had been wrong to impose a deterrent sentence on a first-time offender.
But Mr Recorder Kotewall backed the magistrate's decision and said she was entitled to take into account the effect that such bad behaviour would have on Hong Kong's tourist industry. |
