Hong Kong cash grabber spared jail in first prosecution over HK$15m Wan Chai spill
Cleaner who admitted scooping up HK$8,000 on Gloucester Road on Christmas Eve given suspended sentence
PUBLISHED : Friday, 30 January, 2015, 12:58am
UPDATED : Friday, 30 January, 2015, 2:15am
Chris Lau [email protected]
Cleaner Chung Ying-kit leaves Eastern Court after he pleaded guilty and was given a suspended prison term. Photo: Edward Wong
A cleaner who admitted scooping up HK$8,000 on one of the city's busiest roads on Christmas Eve has been spared jail in the first prosecution over the HK$15 million Wan Chai cash spill.
Chung Ying-kit, 68, was sentenced to a month in prison, suspended for 18 months, after he pleaded guilty to one count of theft in Eastern Court on Thursday.
He picked up the banknotes on the westbound lane of Gloucester Road, near Stewart Road, after a passing cash delivery security van spilled bundles of money on the road at 1.50pm.
The court heard that while Chung returned HK$2,000 to the police, he pocketed the remaining HK$6,000 and later spent it on a Samsung mobile phone. He admitted stealing the HK$6,000.
Magistrate Li Kwok-wai described the incident, which saw motorists and passers-by take part in the cash-grabbing frenzy, as "lawless" and of "a grand scale".
"All, including you, knew it was the property of others," Li said, adding that such criminal acts should be met with immediate custodial sentences.
But he exercised leniency on the grounds that Chung was old and had pleaded guilty at the first opportunity. He had also promised to return the cash, which was not a great amount, Li said.
The offender began to weep as his counsel, Kirsteen Lau, spoke up in mitigation.
Lau said: "This occurred out of momentary greed, and he told me he wanted to treat himself to something nice."
Apart from two criminal convictions dating back to the 1960s, Chung had been leading a "law-abiding life", she added.
The lawyer described her client as a hard-working man who earned HK$7,400 per month but who gave in to temptation when presented with an unexpected windfall.
Outside court, a police source told the South China Morning Post that they realised Chung had passed to the police less than he took when they reviewed CCTV footage.
The money he picked up was part of HK$15.23 million that had gone missing by the time police arrived at the scene.
Three cash boxes, carrying a total of HK$52.5 million, fell out that day when the rear door of the G4S vehicle slid open. G4S was transporting the cash under a contract with Bank of China.
The cash spill quickly attracted nearby opportunists, who flocked to the scene to help themselves to the money.
Forty-six people have voluntarily returned HK$7.92 million since police launched a public appeal to retrieve the money, saying those who handed in the cash would avoid prosecution.
But HK$7.1 million remained missing as of Wednesday, a police spokeswoman said.
In addition to Chung, police have arrested six others, one of whom will appear in Eastern Court today on one count of theft. The spokeswoman has said police are still trying to track down 10 others.
