Boss jailed for telling door-to-door fire extinguisher salesmen what to say to police probing sales tactics

Asia: He knew that members of the public had made grievances against his marketers, who were going door to door selling fire extinguisher, over their false selling techniques.

And when the police began questioning his employees ‘ behavior, &nbsp. the sole proprietor of Fire Safety & Prevention (SG) instructed them to give identically likely false accounts to investigation officers because he did n’t want business to be impacted in a group chat.

Kelvin Tan Yaosheng, a 43-year-old Singaporean, was jailed for a week on Thursday ( Aug 29 ) for one count of obstructing justice. A second related command was taken into consideration.

The prosecutor was informed that Tan’s employees used dishonest sales techniques when selling the extinguishers.

When the gentlemen went door to door, they may employ one or more of these strategies.

These included letting people know that a public body or community center in Singapore was hiring them, that salespeople working with the Women’s Association had negotiated a discount on their purchases, and that the fire extinguisher were priced at S$ 17.90 ( US$ 13.80 ).

In fact, these were rests. None of the salespeople had any relationships with any public figures, and the extinguisher really cost S$ 179 each.

Tan received numerous complaints from the general public about the approaches his salespeople were employing.

A client complained that an worker had sold them a fire hose that was said to charge S$ 17.90 in May 2019, but the customer was afterwards fined S$ 179.

One more buyer complained the same way a fortnight afterwards.

Tan was made aware that another people had filed a police record involving the same problem in November 2019.

The officers received numerous reports about the dishonesty of Tan’s employees by promoting the extinguisher sales.

They called Tan and his staff in singly to help with examinations. Tan was one of the first to be contacted and set up an interview with the authorities on March 4, 2020.

Tan sent a text to a WhatsApp group talk he had with his people shortly after making his declaration that morning.

He instructed them on what to declare if the police interviewed them and that research officers could summon them for interviews.

They were required to state that they sold each fire extinguishers for S$ 179, that this was the amount they had always set for clients, that they never published a price range of S$ 17.90, and that they generally managed to persuade customers to sign on payments to let them know the value was S$ 179 before collecting payment.

Tan was aware of the high volume of issues his employees had filed against him and that the information he gave to the police was good false.

Tan also made sure that all of his people gave him directions to respond to his messages. The people were aware that Tan was requesting that their remarks be compared to his.

One of the workers, Chai Ri Jou, eventually admitted to the police that he had accepted Tan’s accounts as being false because he was his supervisor.

Chai was jailed for two weeks for stealing.

In June 2020, representatives from the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS) called Tan in to help with their inquiries regarding the exact problem.

Tan asked his staff to hold off on their interviews until after he had completed his therefore that he could explain what CCCS would inquire them. After finding out that CCCS was even calling up his employees, Tan asked them to wait until after he had completed his interview.

Tan also instructed them to give the exact accounts to CCCS. This is the fee that has been taken into account for his situation.

In 2020, CCCS issued an advisory warning consumers about the cruel practices of manufacturers of fire extinguishers, including those from Fire Safety &amp, Prevention (SG).

SENTENCING Explanations

Tan’s deputy public counsel, Louis Ngia, requested one to two weeks in jail, claiming he had written a tale for his workers and instructed them to “uniformly lay to the officers.”

Although the amount involved is small, the people ‘ lying offenses involved tricking victims into believing they were working with the Women’s Association or were engaged in public service work.

This impugned the public’s trust in open administration in Singapore, said Mr Ngia.

Tan was represented by Mr Navin Naidu and Mr Manfred Lum from Dentons Rodyk &amp, Davidson, who sought a great otherwise.

In punishment, District Judge Kok Shu-En said she accepted the defence’s level that Tan was hardly a common criminal who was trying to cover up his personal wrongdoing.

She also acknowledged that he had no idea how fraudulent profits were conducted.

But, Judge Kok said it seemed to her that Tan “was not particularly concerned” about what the truth was, yet though he had received complaints from customers.

His priority was more that the authorities may be given a version of events that would be beneficial to him, according to the judge.

She claimed that Tan had instructed the whole party, making this an attempt to “interfere with investigations at scale” by not only one employee but also one employee.

She said there was “nothing ethical” about his do, and that he was motivated completely by his own issues.

For affecting justice, he could have been jailed for up to seven decades, fined, or both.