A GANG that allegedly sold low-quality wines at extremely high prices to men on blind dates in bars run by gang members went on trial in the Nanshan court on Monday, the Daily Sunshine reported yesterday.

The gang's 40 members were tasked with chatting online with men to entice them to go on blind dates in bars run by the gang leaders, Qiu Wei, Meng Dawei and Cai Yihao. The gang also ordered young girl members to pose as the dates and coerce the men into buying expensive wines, according to prosecutors.

The prosecutors said Qiu, Meng and Cai had registered with authorities to set up a company called Hengjitong Co. in April 2006. They then opened bars in the Luohu, Futian and Shekou areas.

The bars claimed the wines were imported and cost hundreds of yuan a bottle, but actually served low-quality wines, an earlier media report said. Boosted by the income from the highly profitable practice, the bars raked in about 1.6 million yuan (US$225,352) a month, according to the newspaper.

But most members pleaded not guilty in court, arguing that they were unaware of the wine sales. "My duty was to get as many men as possible to bars. I had no idea what kind of wine they served in the bars, or how they sold the wines," said Chen Fangman, one of the men on trial.

The scam was exposed by a gang member who gave his name only as Qiang. He said he felt guilty after cheating more than 500 people in the course of a few months. Qiang, 18, said his task was to look for potential targets on the Internet, posing as girls to set up blind dates using instant messenger software QQ. He received 20 percent of the profits from the wine sales.

Another gang member identified by his surname Song helped swindle 355,000 yuan out of 27 people in the first two weeks of May last year, the Daily Sunshine said. His best victim was a Longgang businessman who he swindled out of 36,000 yuan on one night. The man did not even have the cash to take a taxi when he left the bar, the court papers said.

The prosecutors said some people liked to show off in front of girls and such people were most likely fall into traps like this.

The hearing is continuing.