Sonoun Kimlee Salon: Fake salon hidden behind Springvale jewellery shop
To most it looked like a jewellery shop, but to others it hid a secret beauty salon. That was until bloodied ‘patients’ were seen walking out the door.
South East
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An illegal, cockroach-infested cosmetic surgery salon operating out the back of a Springvale shop was uncovered after bloodied patients were seen leaving a jewellery store.
Husband and wife team Sonoun Saing and Kim Lee Tan ran the unregistered Sonoun Kimlee Salon inside the Springvale Shopping Centre during 2018 and early 2019.
Authorities had been alerted to the suspect salon when people were seen leaving the front of a jewellery shop with bloodied faces and bandages.
The health risk posed by the dodgy facility was so bad it led to a public call out for anyone who had visited there to get checked for hepatitis and HIV.
The salon provided Botox, eyebrow tattooing and clipping, lip tattooing, skin peels, mole removal, eye and lip filler and tattoo removal procedures.
But it was barely more than a store room with a bed with no appropriate facilities, tools or chemicals to properly clean or sterilise equipment.
And there were cockroaches roaming over the equipment and leaving their faeces in cupboards.
A health officer’s report stated the room was in an unhygienic and disorganised condition with no handwashing facilities, furniture that was not cleaned or disinfected, poorly stored equipment, used tissues and used make-up brushes and scissors lying around.
Saing and Tan, and their business Sonoun Kim Lee Pty Ltd, each pleaded guilty to one charge of failing to register a premises at the online Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on Thursday.
The Department of Health and Human Services said the council notified them after receiving reports of “patrons leaving a jewellery shop with blood on their faces and looking as though they had undergone a cosmetic procedure”.
It said they were not authorised to provide cosmetic procedures and posed a potential risk to public health due to poor hygiene practices and lack of infection control.
At the time Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said the unregistered salon “which was one of the worst we’ve seen” posed a risk to public health due to a lack of infection control and strict hygiene practices.
He said clients could have been exposed to the risk of contracting blood-borne viruses including hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV from other patients or from the person performing the cosmetic work.
Marcus Heath, prosecuting on behalf of Greater Dandenong Council, said there were “aggravating factors” involved.
He said Tan did the cosmetic procedures, while Saing, her husband, ran the jewellery store and was complicit in the offending.
Both were responsible for the company as they were directors.
“(The defendants) need to be specifically deterred from engaging in similar conduct,” Mr Heath said.
“It is a matter of public interest due to the risks posed to public health.
“Others need to be deterred from operating such a business.”
Magistrate Michael Smith said it was “unsuitable and unsafe” for them to run a salon.
The company, Sonoun Kim Lee Pty Ltd, was fined $16,000, and Saing and Tan were each fined $6000.
All were convicted.
A claim for council costs, in the region of around $11,000, has been reserved to a later date.
