Optometrist wins appeal in fake contact lenses case

SINGAPORE — An optometrist yesterday successfully appealed against his conviction of intentionally aiding two others to obtain bogus contact lenses.

Mr Koh Peng Kiat was among seven people who were the first to face charges for the sale of counterfeit contact lenses in 2012.

He was fined S$38,000 for linking up Neo Teck Soon and Wong Chow Fatt with a supplier of the lenses, which were fraudulently labelled as CIBA Vision’s FreshLook ColorBlends.

Yesterday, Justice Choo Han Teck ruled that it was “unsafe” to convict Mr Koh because there was no evidence that he knew the contact lenses were counterfeit.

Although prosecutors had argued that Mr Koh should have known the stock probably did not come from CIBA Vision, since the price it was going for was well below the market price, the judge found that it did not constitute a reason that would have raised Mr Koh’s suspicions.

On the prosecutors’ argument that the onus was on Mr Koh to make enquiries with CIBA Vision about the cheap contact lenses, Justice Choo disagreed, saying there was no evidence that this was a common market practice.

“It is not useful to set a base price to determine whether the contact lenses are counterfeit. This is because prices of contact lenses vary and large discounts are given for bulk purchases,” he added.

He noted how three of the prosecution witnesses testified during the trial that they had bought contact lenses for between S$12 and S$13.20 per box even though the market price was S$22.

Wong and Neo, who have been dealt with, had bought the contact lenses from the supplier at S$8 and S$10, respectively.

Consequently, Justice Choo also dismissed the prosecution’s cross-appeal against Mr Koh’s sentence.

The counterfeit lenses were uncovered when four opticians sent stock for exchange to CIBA Vision — usually done to get different colours or degrees.

Laboratory analysis showed that the lenses, which were packaged in boxes that had typographical errors, were unsafe and of poor quality.