Third person held over cash frenzy sparked by HK$52m security van spill
Third person held as police hunt for HK$9m still missing after security van shed its load on busy Wan Chai road, sparking banknote frenzy
PUBLISHED : Saturday, 27 December, 2014, 2:14am
UPDATED : Saturday, 27 December, 2014, 2:14am
Emily Tsang [email protected]
The hooded man is arrested in Kowloon Bay. Photo: Dickson Lee
A third person was arrested last night over a cash-grabbing frenzy in Wan Chai, three days after bundles of banknotes totalling HK$52.5 million tumbled from a money transport van onto a busy road on Christmas Eve.
Police arrested the man, 23, on suspicion of theft in his Ap Lei Chau flat last night. Officers seized two computers, two ferry ticket stubs and a mobile phone. The man was detained overnight for further questioning.
About HK$9 million was still missing yesterday as the van's owner, security firm G4S, apologised to its contract employer, Bank of China Hong Kong.
Two other suspects, a man and a woman, were still in custody on suspicion of theft after officers traced the pair with CCTV footage and found HK$165,000 stashed under a bed in the man's home in Kowloon Bay, a police spokesman said. They had not been charged.
The man, 43, and woman, 36, were passengers in a taxi that had stopped at the scene of the cash spill.
Police repeated their warning for people who had picked up the spilled money from Gloucester Road to return it.
Barrister and lawmaker Alan Leong Kah-kit said: "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."
Hongkongers were confronted with the prospects of a dubious windfall when three cash boxes, each holding HK$17.5 million, fell from the side door of the van at about 1pm on Wednesday.
Drivers and passengers were seen abandoning their vehicles in the middle of the road in a money scramble that lasted about 10 minutes. Mainland tourists reportedly left their coaches and helped themselves to the Police said HK$15.23 million was gone before officers arrived.
By last night, a poll on SCMP.com found that 63 per cent of respondents said that they would not try to keep any cash they had picked up from a road spill.
As of 5pm yesterday, 38 people had brought HK$6.3 million to police, including one person who handed in HK$2 million.
The van was transporting HK$500 and HK$1,000 notes worth HK$270 million in 30 plastic boxes to its head office in Cheung Sha Wan.
All four staff members on board - a driver and three security guards - were sitting in front and did not notice the side door had slid open until they had driven past the Western Harbour Tunnel, G4S spokeswoman Sheeta Leung Hui-kwan said.
They reported the incident on reaching head office. All four have been suspended.
"We would like to offer our sincere apology to BOCHK and the public for the incident and any inconvenience or embarrassment it may have caused," Leung said. The firm would handle the loss with the bank "according to the contractual agreement and in line with the process required by our insurance".
