Just more than a third of Hong Kong's lost highway cash recovered: police
Police warn those still holding money that failure to return it will be considered theft
PUBLISHED : Sunday, 28 December, 2014, 1:03am
UPDATED : Sunday, 28 December, 2014, 11:04am
Alice Woodhouse [email protected]
Police warn those who have taken cash from the scene that failure to return it will be considered theft.
Police have recovered HK$6.4 million of the HK$15.23 million that went missing after it tumbled from a moving money transport van in Wan Chai on Christmas Eve.
So far 41 people have returned the cash to police, the force said yesterday afternoon.
"The case is still under investigation," a police spokeswoman told the Sunday Morning Post.
Police said anyone who picked up the HK$1,000 and HK$500 notes from the scene should hand them over as soon as possible, otherwise they would be committing theft.
Barrister and lawmaker Alan Leong Kah-kit added: "If the persons who have taken cash from the scene volunteer to surrender it to the police in a short period of time, it is less likely for the police to charge them with theft as it may be harder to build a case."
Three plastic boxes, each containing HK$17.5 million, fell on to Gloucester Road when a door of the G4S security van slid open.
Four G4S employees were sitting in the front seat of the vehicle, which was carrying a total of HK$270 million.
They didn't notice the door had opened until they were in Kowloon.
Three people who were arrested on suspicion of theft have been released on bail, police said. They have not been charged.
Security cameras captured a man, 43, and a woman, 36, after their taxi stopped next to the spilled cash. Police found HK$165,000 under a bed in the man's Kowloon Bay home.
G4S Chief Executive Nick Buckles. Photo: AFP
G4S was transporting the cash under a contract with Bank of China. The firm said it would resolve the loss with the bank under its contract and insurance.
G4S came under scrutiny in 2012 when it announced on the eve of the London Olympics it would not be able to provide the full number of security staff it had been contracted for at a cost of £284 million (HK$3.4 billion).
The company's chief executive, Nick Buckles, was called before a House of Commons committee to explain why the firm would have to lean on the army to bolster security for the event.
Buckles agreed the G4S failure to provide the full 10,400 guards it had promised to the games was a "humiliating shambles".
He told MPs the company took the contract to boost its reputation and that the £10m profit it would make was not significant for the global security firm. G4S was forced to pay £88 million as a result of the debacle.
Watch: People scramble for cash after van spills banknotes on busy Hong Kong street
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