Shop assistant fined $4,000 for flouting second-hand goods rule
Published on Nov 18, 2011
By Khushwant Singh
She was required to pay sellers of second-hand goods with a crossed cheque but the shop assistant with scrap metal dealer Basic Metal World would rather pay them in cash.
The price for disregarding this requirement of the Secondhand Goods Dealers Act was a $4,000 fine for Ong Kuei Eng.
The 55-year-old pleaded guilty on Friday in a district court to paying nearly $151,200 in cash to Mr Chua Ser Hai.
The court heard that in January, Ong was working at the shop in Jurong East on Jan 20. At 7pm on Jan 20, Mr Chua drove up in a prime mover with several tons of lead, copper and stainless steel in a container.
After weighing the load, a deal was struck and Ong took the cash from the office to pay Mr Chua.
The court heard that Ong had also disregarded the crossed cheque requirement on Jan 9 when she made payment of $26,670 to Mr Chua.
This offence was taken into consideration by the judge when passing sentence.
Read the full story in Friday's edition of The Straits Times.
