A Hong Kong produce-retailing chain has been convicted for the second time in less than a year for ignoring noise regulations and annoying neighbours.

Wan Chai’s branch of Bonnie Vegetables and Fruit Wholesale Limited was convicted for causing noise nuisance and fined $8000 by the Eastern Magistrates’ Courts yesterday for contravening the Noise Control Ordinance (NCO) by causing noise nuisance to nearby residents with loudspeakers constantly playing promotional recordings.

Another Bonnie Vegetables store trading on San Tsuen Street was fined just last September for the same offence. Bonnie’s director was also convicted and held criminally liable for her stores’ repeated offences. She was fined $5000.

A spokesman for the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) said that the department received complaints earlier this year about a vegetable chain stall on Wan Chai Road persistently and repeatedly playing loud promotional recordings with loudspeakers, causing great nuisance to nearby residents. Staff of the EPD confirmed that the noise from the vegetable stall was causing nuisance after an investigation and an on-site assessment. The department subsequently prosecuted the stall under the NCO.

The EPD has all along been closely monitoring the situations brought about by chain stores playing loud promotional recordings with loudspeakers in various districts.

In addition to initiating prosecutions against chain stores not complying with the law, the EPD will also prosecute the relevant company directors if there are stores committing repeated violations.