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Education in Hong Kong
Hong KongEducation

Hong Kong customs arrests director of tutoring centre chain Brilliant Education, as parents claim HK$2.5 million in prepaid fees after abrupt close

  • Director arrested over wrongly accepting payments when selling prepaid tutorial programmes, a breach of the Trade Descriptions Ordinance
  • More than 300 parents are seeking to recover total of HK$2.51 million in fees, following closure of all the company’s centres on the weekend

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The Customs and Excise Department, which enforces the ordinance, has said the the company’s director was arrested on Tuesday. Photo: Jelly Tse
Sammy Heung,Clifford LoandWynna Wong
Hong Kong customs has arrested the 50-year-old director of private tutoring company Brilliant Education, which collapsed over the weekend and allegedly owed HK$2.51 million (US$320,710) to 310 customers in prepaid fees.
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The department on Wednesday said the woman had been arrested the day before over wrongly accepting payments when selling prepaid tutorial programmes, a breach of the Trade Descriptions Ordinance.

The amount owed as of midday made the case the largest involving a tutoring centre since the amended ordinance, which is enforced by customs, took effect in 2013.

The maximum claimed by a single Brilliant Education customer was HK$50,000, which a parent had paid to cover tutorial services and summer courses for two children. Some parents said they had paid up to one-year’s worth of fees in advance.

“Our investigation found that the centre was still selling prepaid class packages in July. After the company announced its closure, the person in charge did not offer any appropriate follow-up arrangements,” said Aggie Tsang Hoi-Ting, a divisional commander at the unfair trade practice investigation group.

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