Former director of Hong Kong property firm fined HK$1,500 for stealing HK$12 cloth
Poon Kai-tik, previously of The Link Management, ordered to pay 125 times the value of the cloth he was convicted of stealing
PUBLISHED : Friday, 27 March, 2015, 11:50pm
UPDATED : Saturday, 28 March, 2015, 4:42am
Chris Lau [email protected]
Poon Kai-tik arrives at Eastern Court, where he was convicted and fined for shoplifting a glasses-cleaning cloth he claimed he forgot he was holding. Photo: Dickson Lee
A former director of The Link Management was fined HK$1,500 on Friday after he was convicted of shoplifting a glasses-cleaning cloth 125 times cheaper than his fine.
Poon Kai-tik, 62, who testified in his own defence during the trial, was also criticised by Eastern Court Magistrate Li Kwok-wai, who said he gave inaccurate evidence.
Li said Poon's account of the incident was "as circuitous as it was puzzling". He then found Poon guilty of stealing the HK$12 cloth at the Aeon store in North Point on April 7 last year.
Li said he could not accept the "series of coincidences" Poon put forth during the trial. Poon had said he had wanted to exchange a cloth he had bought earlier with the one he stole.
But Poon, the former director of government and community engagement at the real estate investment trust, failed to produce a receipt for either cloth after a cashier confronted him.
He told the court he had kept the receipt in his wallet since his initial purchase. But he said he realised on the spot that he had lost it.
Poon also told the court that he had put the old cloth in a briefcase, but that he happened to forget the briefcase, leaving it in his office that day.
"This defies common sense," the magistrate said. Poon had previously told the court he had had been in the shop and holding the cloth when he was struck by an urge to use the toilet, which made him forget what he was holding as he walked out of the store.
He had also said he was too focused on his Blackberry device as he left the store.
He even told Li during the trial that he then forgot why he was there.
"How could he suddenly forget why he had gone to the Aeon store?" Li asked rhetorically.
But the magistrate also said police had mishandled evidence. When Poon was arrested, a constable recorded his oral admission, which Poon later denied after he was brought to a police station. Poon then remained silent on the advice of his lawyer.
When a case officer put together the evidence against Poon, however, he omitted Poon's admission and denial altogether, and only recorded that Poon had invoked his right to remain silent.
In mitigation, Poon's lawyer, Arthur Luk Yee-shun SC, noted that Poon did not attempt to hide the cloth, and had been cooperative when confronted about it.
The court heard that in 2000 Poon had been bound over for theft and assault. In that case, prosecutors accused him of stealing a HK$60 computer book and assaulting a shop assistant.
