Jail for man who tried to blackmail Transformers 4 film crew
Two-and-a-half years for air conditioning technician who sought HK$100,000 payment, as judge says case affected HK's reputation
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 26 February, 2014, 1:41pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 26 February, 2014, 5:42pm
Julie Chu [email protected]
Filming gets underway on Transformers 4 in Quarry Bay. Mak Chi-shing demanded the crew pay him HK$100,000 during shooting on October 17 last year.
An air conditioning technician who tried to blackmail the film crew of Transformers 4 into paying him HK$100,000 has been sentenced to two and a half years in jail.
Mak Chi-shing, 27, demanded the sum from the crew as they shot part of the film at North Point on October 17 last year.
He was convicted today in the District Court, which found him guilty on one charge of blackmail and one of assaulting a police officer.
His elder brother Mak Chi-hang, 28, was acquitted on the blackmail charge with the judge citing insufficient evidence.
But the judge convicted the elder brother of resisting a police office while he was struggling with the crew. The elder brother was sentenced to six weeks in jail.
Judge Josiah Lam Wai-kuen noted that the case involved a foreign filming crew and had been broadly reported by the media.
"The case affected the reputation of Hong Kong as an international city," said the judge. "[The negative publicity] could affect foreigners deciding whether to travel to or work in Hong Kong."
The judge said this was an aggravating factor in the sentence..
The court had earlier heard that the two brothers ran an air-conditioning shop in King’s Road, Quarry Bay, outside which the Transformers crew were filming on October 17 last year during a 10-day shoot in the city.
The night before filming, a crew member agreed to pay HK$1,000 to the pair for the inconvenience. But when the crew arrived, the two brothers played music loudly at the scene. The younger brother then demanded HK$100,000. Later, the brothers and other men began moving bricks out of the shop to obstruct the crew.
