Club manager in fake beer probe appears in court

By BEVERLY PETER
AN operations manager of a night club in Port Moresby who was charged for allegedly selling counterfeit SP beer at the venue appeared in the National Court on Monday.
Judge Teresa Berrigan converted the K2,000 committal court bail of Yip Chee Ming Sam, of Kuala Lumpur’s Perak village, Malaysia to National Court bail.
Berrigan added that Ming’s two guarantors of Ming would each pay K500 sureties and ordered that he report to the National Court registry every second Monday of each month.
The case went through the initial committal process and the court found sufficient evidence on the charge and committed Ming in October last year.
Police alleged that in December 2021, information was received that there was a container filled with counterfeit SP green cans parked at the back of the Shangri La club along Waigani Drive.
According to police, the South Pacific Brewery sales team had been conducting investigations into complaints of fake beer being circulated in the country.
The investigations started in 2019 when several tests were conducted on the fake cans of beer, which were confirmed that they were not a product of SP Brewery.
The brewery’s security investigation team then conducted surveillance on the container.
While surveillance was being conducted with the help of police, the container was opened and a large number of fake SP green cans of beer were found inside.
Upon inquiry, police were advised that the container belonged to the club.
Ming, as the Shangri La club operations manager, was interviewed, but denied having knowledge of the container but was arrested and charged.
The case was adjourned to March 13 for its next mention.