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Colleen Lee

Dennis Eng

Felix Chan

Customs seize 1,200 items with suspect labels

Two women were arrested last night after customs officers raided a jewellery store in Hung Hom and seized more than 1,200 items worth HK$1 million.

Labels attached to the jewellery may have breached the Trade Descriptions Ordinance.

The raid was part of a crackdown on stores by authorities after complaints that tourists, especially from the mainland, are being sold fake goods.

Two more mainland tourists, meanwhile, complained they had been duped by another jewellery  store that has been at the centre of the scandal exposed by a China Central Television  report last weekend.

The suspect items were found in Sunshine Plaza,  in Sung On Street,  which was one of five shops targeted yesterday. The female shop owner, 32, was arrested with another woman, 48. They were released on bail without being charged.

Wong Yiu-cheung,  chief trade controls officer for the  consumer protection division, said: 'We found that the gold   they sold   carried a suspected fake description - the word Italy. According to our information, the goods were made in China, not in Italy. Basically, we suspect them to have contravened the Trade Descriptions Ordinance.'

One of the mainlanders who came forward yesterday said he spent HK$80,000 at the Majestic Watch & Jewellery Company  in To Kwa Wan,  a store mentioned in the CCTV report. The shop was closed yesterday.

'I was cheated twice.  I will never shop in Hong Kong again, not even the big brands,' said Wang Guohua , a tourist from Harbin  who  went to the shop  to seek refunds.

He went to the store in December and spent about HK$80,000 on two Swiss Paris  watches for his sister-in-law.

He visited  on a 'zero-fare tour', which cost very little but usually require tour members to spend at designated shops.  He did an internet search for the watch model but turned up nothing and  suspected they were fakes.

On January 7 he came back  to demand a refund. Instead, he  spent a further HK$20,000 to exchange the watches for an Omega model and a Vacheron Constantin.   Mr Wang soon  found that the Vacheron Constantin  ran slowly. 'It runs an hour late every 24 hours,' he said.

Returning to the shop  on January 15, he was coaxed into paying HK$20,000 more to replace it with a new Vacheron Constantin watch. In Beijing, he checked with a franchisee and was told  it was only worth about HK$10,000 because the case was fake.

Another dissatisfied customer outside the shop  was Sun Meilan  from Changchun . She said she  bought a pair of Palais Cristalin  gold watches for HK$14,660 last September from a shop  at the same spot as Majestic.

A month after her purchase, the colour of the watches started to fade. She called the shop for advice and was told to rub them with flannel.

'But it didn't work,' Ms Sun said. 'I am afraid I can't get a refund now as the shop has changed its name.'

Both customers reported their cases to the police, who referred them to  the Consumer Council.

Customs officers have already seized almost 500 watches worth HK$4 million from  Majestic.

The council said it received a number of complaints about the shop from mainland tourists  and  would follow up.   It is  liaising with its mainland counterpart to increase public awareness about tourist shopping in Hong Kong.

The other  store named by CCTV was Expo Global, in Hung Hom.

Shopping woes

Complaints received by the Travel Industry Council about the Majestic Watch & Jewellery Company from January to March 26

Number of complaints received about Expo Global in same period 12



Two arrested in raid on jewellery store