SINGAPORE - He billed himself as a nail artist to the stars.

And manicurist Deniz Lee, 33, dropped their names when advertising his services online.

Actresses Jesseca Liu, Kym Ng and Dawn Yeoh were mentioned, as were blogger Wendy Cheng (better known as Xiaxue) and Malaysian singer Shi Xin Hui of Project Superstar fame.

But now, Mr Lee is in the soup.

Three people who bought manicure packages from him say he has become uncontactable.

They speak about how tough it is to book an appointment, even when they call a month in advance.

They also accuse him of constantly changing locations, renting spaces in shops at places like Holland Village and Somerset.

In March, Mr Lee set up a shop in Marina Square with two partners.

It was "nicely decorated", said civil servant Joanne Lee, 30, but she added that it was still difficult to make an appointment.

Then, the shop closed without warning in July, she said, leaving her and other customers like student Serene Tan, 20, stranded.

They had paid for $300 and $500 manicure packages.

The women claimed Mr Lee did not answer their calls or SMSes. Attempts to contact him online failed - his blog and Twitter account had been shut down.

Ms Lee, 30, had bought Mr Lee's online voucher while preparing for her wedding in December.

She recalled: "When I first visited Deniz, he was renting space from a spa. There was only one massage chair on the second floor and he was tending to customers on his own, surrounded by trolleys of nail polish."

She paid for a $500 package, which included 10 manicure and pedicure sessions, with free French tips (a type of French manicure) and five rounds of nail art thrown in.

Ms Lee said the package was not cheap.

"It's actually about the same as the market rate (about $45 to $50 per session). But I was drawn by the freebies," she said.

The star wattage helped too.

"He had appeared on television before. He had celebrity customers," she added. "Xiaxue talked about him on her blog. The glam factor was definitely there."

Ms Cheng confirmed that Mr Lee had approached her to sponsor some nail art for her events in 2009. "It was so long ago...I thought what he did was okay, pretty good," she said.

As for the name-dropping, Ms Cheng added: "It's true that he did my nails. He did a lot of people's nails too.

"If he wants to say so when advertising himself, it's a fact... But does that mean all of us have to be accountable for him?"

Malaysian-born actress Jesseca Liu said Mr Lee did her nails twice, but local artiste Kym Ng did not recall him doing so.

At that time, Ms Lee didn't suspect anything was amiss despite failing to get an appointment in February.

"I assumed business was very good," she said.

She ended up with a May appointment at the Marina Square outlet - her one manicure session.

But she got a shock when she went there in early August and found the shop closed.

Ms Lee went online and found that she wasn't alone in her plight. So she, together with four other women aged 20 to 32, made a police report. She also lodged a complaint with the Small Claims Tribunal.

Accountable

Ms Lee said: "He has to honour what we paid him for.

"If he's facing any difficulties, we're willing to wait until he settles his personal affairs. But he has to be accountable."

When TNP contacted Mr Lee, he claimed he was also a victim.

He said he was supposed to earn $1,500 a month at the shop, but was not able to provide a copy of his employment letter.

He claimed everything was agreed upon verbally. Mr Lee also said he had not been paid since April, but he kept turning up for work until the middle of July, when he found the Marina Square shop closed.

He was unable to retrieve his laptop, mobile phone and manicure tools that were in the shop, he added.

During the 45-minute conversation with TNP, Mr Lee claimed he did not handle financial matters for the shop. That was the purview of someone he claimed was his director.

He said he had been unable to contact her since the shop closed.

When TNP visited the woman's two last-known addresses, she was not there.

Mr Lee said: "Everything was too sudden. All these happened within three to four months. I was very down because there's nothing I can do."

He decided against going online to clarify matters as he felt customers would not see things from his point of view.

"I spent 11 years building my reputation (in this line) and it's gone in three months," Mr Lee said.

The situation was "very worrying", he said, adding that he has sought legal advice and remained hopeful that online comments about him would taper off after a while.

But that is cold comfort for customers like Ms Lee.

She said that she has received a response from the Small Claims Tribunal saying that Mr Lee has to pay her for unclaimed services, but added: "As a consumer, I feel very unprotected. I just hope to get some answers and raise awareness.

"This is a very expensive lesson."

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