Two tea dealers based in Chiayi County were convicted of fraud yesterday for conning Chinese tourists into buying their tea leaves at unreasonably high prices.
Judges at the Chiayi District Court said Wang Cheh-chien (王哲謙), 51, a tea dealer based in Leyeh Village, Alishan Township (阿里山), was discovered to have purchased ordinary tea leaves that were machine-harvested from tea fields in low-lying areas in Nantou County since July 2005.
He paid between NT$160 and NT$450 per 600g and then, after simply processing and packaging the product, sold the tea leaves to visiting Chinese tourists at more than 10 times the price he paid -- between NT$4,000 and NT$8,000 per 600g.
Wang presented the leaves as hand-picked Oolong tea originating from the Alishan mountains.
Forty-five percent of the proceeds from the sales were paid to travel agents as commission for bringing the Chinese tourists to his shop, the judges said.
Meanwhile, Pai Ming-hui (白銘輝), 43, another Alishan Township tea dealer, was discovered to have also purchased machine-harvested, average tea leaves from low-lying areas at NT$400 per 600g since early 2006, while reselling the product to Chinese tourists as "Alishan high mountain Oolong tea" at prices ranging from 400 yuan (NT$1,550) to 480 yuan per 600g.
Both Wang and Pai, who were charged in September 2006, admitted conning the Chinese tourists, the Chiayi judges said.
The judges decided to cut the sentence for Wang from 22 months in jail to 11 months, with three years' probation, after he expressed remorse and offered to donate NT$450,000 to good causes.
The 18-month sentence Pai received was also reduced to nine months in prison, with three years' probation after he also expressed remorse and offered to donate NT$300,000, the judges said.
Alishan is one of the attractions Chinese tourists consider a "must see" in Taiwan.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS