'Deceitful conduct:' Kelowna couple to pay $500K after duping dollar store buyer

Following a 2011 business trip to BC, Chinese television producer Zi Ye became enamoured with the idea of moving to the province. When several years later her father told her he knew of a couple selling a dollar store in Salmon Arm she jumped at the idea. The couple, Yonghui Ren who goes by the name Ren or Catherine, and her husband Yu Tian, who goes by Hugh, were both originally from China and owned the Salmon Arm franchise of Your Dollar Store with More. In late 2017, Hugh and Ren met Zi Ye in a restaurant in Beijing and told her that buying the store would grant her entry into Canada, as it had done for them several years before. The couple were extremely enthusiastic about the business, telling Zi Ye it was a successful retail store and the franchisor was great. They wanted $300,000 for the store, which Zi Ye thought was a reasonable price for a profitable store which had been running for years. In 2018, she handed over $304,000 to Hugh and Ren to buy the dollar store franchise. But unbeknownst to her, Hugh and Ren hadn't gotten permission to sell the business from the franchisee, a critical step in owning the franchise. Now, seven years after that initial meeting, Ren and Hugh have been ordered to pay Zi Ye $511,000 after BC Supreme Court Justice Kathleen Ker said the couple had "deliberately, and fraudulently" misled Zi Ye with misrepresentations that "induced" her. The details are laid out in a lengthy 159-page BC Supreme Court decision. The 58,000-word ruling gives a play-by-play of the events that led to Zi Ye purchasing the dollar store and the fallout when she realized that Hugh and Ren hadn't informed the franchisee about the sale and she was forced to sell the store at a loss. In 2022, Zi Ye sold the assets that she owned for $60,000. The decision said that Hugh and Ren told Zi Ye that if she purchased the store it would be a certain ticket into Canada. However, while purchasing a business had allowed them to emigrate to Canada, the rules had since changed, and buying the business wouldn't grant Zi Ye a work permit. The couple also knew that as Zi Ye didn't speak any English the franchisee wouldn't allow them to sell the business to her, as it required owners to have enough English language skills to communicate with clients and suppliers. While Hugh and Ren knew that the sale needed the franchisee's approval, the couple misled Zi Ye telling her, and her lawyer, that they had dealt with that side of the business sale for her. What the couple needed was enough cash to buy a $1-million property on Trumpeter Road in Kelowna and they were $200,000 short. The justice described their communications as "intense, chaotic" and a "pressure campaign" upon Zi Ye as they'd put an offer in for the house. READ MORE: 'Frustrating, stressful': Lake Okanagan Resort timeshare owners in the dark year after wildfire https://infotel.ca/newsitem/frustrating-stressful-lake-okanagan-resort-timeshare-owners-in-the-dark-year-after-wildfire/it107133 At one point Hugh and Ren altered an email sent by the franchisee making everything seem like it was ticking along fine, including Zi Ye's immigration status. "Such a representation was in fact false," the Justice said. "Hugh provided a complete fabrication of how (he) acquired their business and entered into a franchise agreement." The decision said when Zi Ye learned that the immigration path Hugh and Ren had followed was no longer an option she looked at other options. However, they all involved dealing with people she didn't know and as Hugh and Ren were acquaintances of her father's she stuck with it. That decision allowed the couple to carry on with what the justice called their "deceitful conduct." In one instance, Hugh and Ren deliberately told Zi Ye not to speak to head office because it might leave a bad impression and instead to wait until her English had improved. She trusted them and allowed them to deal with head office on her behalf. READ MORE: Kamloops D-Day veteran, 104, reflects on wars past and present https://infotel.ca/newsitem/kamloops-d-day-veteran-104-reflects-on-wars-past-and-present/it107091 The justice ruled that Hugh and Ren had deliberately deleted parts of emails to hide the fact that the conditions of the sale hadn't been approved by the franchisee. Had Zi Ye learned this the sale would have fallen through, Hugh and Ren would not have gotten the money to buy the Trumpeter Road property. The decision gave multiple details of communications the various parties had during the trial that lasted for more than three weeks. Justice Ker said Ren was "incapable of providing truthful or accurate testimony" rejecting her evidence outright and saying she was a "completely untrustworthy" witness. "Her evidence has the appearance of a dishonest witness prepared to make up her answers when challenged on an inconsistency," the Justice said. Her husband didn't impress the justice either. "Hugh was also an untrustworthy witness who appeared to concoct explanations on the fly as he testified," Justice Ker said. The Justice went on to say that Hugh purposely tried to mislead the court to what actually took place. The decision said it wasn't possible for Zi Ye to retroactively buy the franchise, and not having the franchise caused problems with the lease, the cash register and franchise fees. It was only when she contacted the company as she was having difficulty with a new cash register that the Dollar Store and More realized the store had changed hands. In court, Zi Ye argued that as the couple's new home – which they'd purchased with some of her money – had increased in value from $1 million to $1.5 million, she was entitled to the profit. The businesswoman also argued for a variety of other expenses and costs totalling $660,000. Ultimately, Justice Ker ordered Ren and Hugh to pay damages of $511,260 to Zi Ye along along with legal fees. To contact a reporter for this story, email Ben Bulmer mailto:bbulmer@infonews.ca  or call (250) 309-5230 or email the editor mailto:news@infonews.ca . You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom mailto:tips@infonews.ca  and be entered to win a monthly prize draw. We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. 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