Hong Kong beauty centre boss and consultant are first to be jailed under law on aggressive sales tactics

A beauty store manager and consultant who badgered a customer into buying lymph therapy by telling her she was at risk of breast cancer have become the first people jailed under a new law against aggressive sales tactics.

Cheng Lai-yin, 44, a manager of the Forever Beauty chain, and Wong Chun-chun, 35, a consultant at its store in Central, were each jailed for three months at Kowloon City Court for engaging, in relation to a consumer, in an aggressive commercial practice. A third defendant, beautician Cheng Wai-yung, 26, was given 200 hours of community service for the same offence.

The three, all of whom pleaded not guilty, are the first people convicted of the offence, introduced in an amendment to the Trade Descriptions Ordinance in July 2013.

Magistrate Veronica Heung Shuk-han found at an earlier hearing that the three used aggressive tactics to sell the lymph therapy to Zheng Jianhua, who went to the shop for a facial treatment on November 20, 2013.

"The case is serious … [The defendants] spoke in tune and colluded together," Heung told the defendants at yesterday's sentencing. The jail sentence was a deterrent, to show the public the courts would not tolerate such "appalling behaviour".

The court earlier heard that Zheng was told the manager was visiting while she was undergoing the facial treatment. At Wong's suggestion, she allowed the manager to examine her breasts. Cheng Lai-yin told her that she had found lumps in the area, which might become cancerous without treatment.

Zheng said she felt bombarded by the three defendants and eventually caved in, putting down a HK$70,000 deposit for lymph therapy. She later complained to the authorities.