Father and son jailed over cafe scam

SHAH ALAM: A father and son have been sentenced by a Sessions Court here to a day in jail and fined a total of RM160,000 after they admitted to two counts of cheating and misleading investors of over RM1mil in an Island Red Cafe programme.

Syarikat Island Red Cafe Franchise Sdn Bhd executive director Teow Wooi Huat, 45, and his son Chee Chow, 22, who is also a director at the company, were charged at the Ampang Sessions Court on Feb 9 last year with fraudulently inducing 93 people to invest RM1,040,400.

They had committed the offence at the company’s premises in Pandan Indah between Jan 1, 2008 and Feb 28 last year.

They also pleaded guilty before Judge Aslam Zainuddin to offering shares of the company to the public through the programme although at that time, it was not involved in buying and selling shares.

For the first offence, Teow and Chee Chow were each sentenced to a day in prison and fined RM20,000 in default of 20 months’ jail.

They were also slapped with a day in prison and fined RM70,000 and RM50,000 respectively – in default of 30 months jail – for the second offence.

Judge Aslam ordered for the jail sentences to run concurrently.