Category: Police
Police arrest 16 drivers over fake Lantau road permits
Hui Chi-ming misses hearing in Tai Long Wan assault case
The assault case against controversial local businessman Hui Chi-ming has been stood over until January 8 after he was unable to attend a hearing on Friday.
Hui, 56, a former CPPCC delegate and the chairman of HKEx-listed Hong Kong Finance, is accused of assaulting a Tai Long Wan resident, Alexander Robert Medd, in March 29.
Hui’s barrister told the West Kowloon Court that his client had been unable to return from mainland China due to the pandemic travel restrictions. Additionally, his mother had died the day prior to the hearing.
The court approved Hui’s application to defer the case until January 8 to allow him to take care of funeral arrangements.
Hui Chi-ming (left) with former Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa
Hui and another man, Chan Ming-leung, 56, first appeared in court over the charges on August 28. They were released bail of HK$1,000 each.
Chan has been charged with unlawfully and maliciously wounding Medd in the same incident.
Hui has bought half a dozen properties and carried out a series of unauthorized building works in the remote Lantau village in the last three years.
Photo (top): A Lands Department signs censures Hui’s unauthorized building works
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Tong Fuk prison guards arrested for smuggling porn, phones
Two guards at the Tong Fuk Correctional Institution have been arrested for allegedly smuggling contraband.
The two illegally brought into the prison mobile phones, cigarettes and USB sticks containing pornographic photos and videos, Oriental Daily reports.
ICAC and the Correctional Services Department carried out a joint investigation into the case and arrested the pair on October 23.
In another incident at the medium-security jail last week, a man imprisoned for his role in the 2016 Mongkok riot was attacked in a prison workshop.
The 34-year-old man victim, Lo Kinman, was taken to the hospital for assessment. He had been sentenced to seven-year term two years ago for rioting – one of the longest sentences handed out to demonstrators in Hong Kong’s spate of protests over the last six years.
The alleged assailant was a 32-year-old Vietnamese national serving time for immigration offences.
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Cages holding cats and dog carcasses wash up on Lantau beach
The carcasses of two cats and a dog in cages have been found on Sham Wat beach, the latest in series of occurrences across the city.
A plastic cage containing two cats and another holding a dog were discovered on the beach in Lantau’s remote north-west, local media have reported.
Lantau police called SPCA staff to the scene and are treating the case as animal cruelty. None of the animals had microchips.
It follows several incidents in August involving the apparent smuggling of domestic animals out Hong Kong.
Customs and marine police intercepted smugglers off Mui Wo carrying a huge haul, including 12 microchipped dogs in cages on August 21.
Several days later a cage holding three dogs was found on the beach at Stanley,. The following day the bodies of 12 cats in two cages were washed ashore on Lamma Island.
The pets were most likely tossed overboard as the smugglers were pursued by customs and marine police.
One theory is that they were owned by mainlanders stranded in Hong Kong by the pandemic who were trying to send them home.
Photo: Sham Wat Bay
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Police arrest man after convenience store mask fight
In separate incidents in Tung Chung, police have arrested a man following an altercation after he refused to wear a mask, while a 72-year-old man died in an apparent suicide.
Police say a 52-year-old man named Wong entered a convenience store on Mei Tung St next to Tung Chung Crescent without a mask at about 11pm on Thursday, HK01 reported.
When a 21-year-old employee named Tam asked him to put on a mask, Wong refused and struck Tam on the head and hands.
Both Wong and Tam were taken to North Lantau Hospital for treatment for their injuries. Lantau police are investigating.
Police were called to Citygate at 7:50am Friday after the body of a 72-year-old a man was reported.
The victim was unconscious and was sent to North Lantau Hospital but was later certified dead, Headline News said.
Police found a suicide note at the scene and believe he had fallen. The cause of death will be determined by an autopsy.
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Villagers spark confrontation after locking gate on Tai O trail
Villagers at Sha Lo Wan on north Lantau have erected a 2.5m iron gate to keep out visitors, closing one of Hong Kong’s most popular hiking trails.
The village closed the gate last Friday during the long holiday weekend, leading to heated scenes as hikers and runners tried to pass.
Two people who tried to skirt around the gate became lost in the nearby hills, sparking a rescue operation by the fire department.
The Tung-O Ancient Trail is a 15km coastal walk between Tai O and Tung Chung and one of the city’s best-known walking and hiking trails.
HK01 reported that the gate was locked with iron chains and protected by barbed wire and tree branches. Around a dozen villagers stood guard.
A sign outside the village states it is a “private area.” Any person who enters “will be treated as a thief and will be reported to the police.”
Police said they had received a complaint from villagers on Friday morning after a heated dispute broke out with hikers who they accused of trespassing, HK01 said.
The hikers departed after police arrived, but were dissatisfied that the police could not explain whether the closure was legal or not.
One visitor, Ms Wong, told Apple Daily that villagers had threatened to beat her if she entered the village. She described them as “selfish and unreasonable” and questioned how they could forcibly occupy a public road.
Late on Friday afternoon two hikers decided to climb into the hills to get around the locked gate became lost.
The villagers refused to open the gate for firefighters, who were forced to use a ladder get into the village. The rescuers located the lost couple near Sha Lo Wan and evacuated them by boat from the San Shek Wan pier.
It’s not the first time Sha Lo Wan villagers have shut visitors out. In 2013 they closed the path as a protest at the government’s refusal to build a main road from Tung Chung to Tai O.
In response to reporters’ queries, the Lands Department said it would “follow up” the incident.
Randy Yu’s wife accused of assaulting helper with hot iron: report
Virginia Lau Yu-lin, the wife of Islands District Council chairman Randy Yu, is under investigation for allegedly assaulting her domestic helper with a hot iron.
Lau, 55, the daughter of late rural kingpin Lau Wong-fat, scalded the 23-year-old helper with a steam iron because she had ironed Yu’s socks before ironing his shirts, according to Apple Daily.
Castle Peak Police Station has confirmed it received a report of a scalding on May 9 and arranged for the victim to be treated at Tuen Mun Hospital on the same day.
A short time later, Lau accused the woman, a Cambodian national known as Ah Ling, of stealing items from her home.
The alleged scalding and theft are being investigated by Tuen Mun police. No charges have been laid.
The charge of employer assault of a domestic servant with an appliance carries a penalty of up to three years’ jail time.
Ah Ling told Apple Daily through an interpreter that she started working for Lau in late March after serving two weeks in quarantine.
She said during her employment she was not given any time off, working from 6 am until early morning. Her mobile phone was confiscated during her shift.
According to Apple Daily, on the evening of May 7 Ah Ling said she was ironing several pairs of socks, as instructed by another helper, when Lau entered the room and asked why she was “ironing your socks first?”
Lau took the iron from her hand and gave a demonstration for a few seconds before she suddenly pressed it against Ah Ling’s upper left arm.
Ah Ling said she screamed with pain. Lau told her to finish the ironing and walked out of the room.
The next morning, Ah Ling’s sister persuaded her to take action. An employee of the agency that had engaged Ah Ling went to Lau’s residence and afterwards decided to call the police.
Several days later, Ah Ling received a letter from Lau’s lawyer, accusing her of slandering her and stealing property.
Apple Daily says its reporter was unable to make contact with Lau, and so tracked down Yu after an Islands District Council meeting. Yu denied the allegations and said he suspected the helper had “self-harmed.” He said Ah Ling’s long hours were a result of her working too slowly.
The charge of an employer assaulting a foreign domestic helper depends on how the abuse is carried out and the injury.
If the injury is minor, the charge is common assault or assault causing bodily harm, with a maximum sentence of one year. If an employer uses an appliance to commit an assault, the penalty is up to three years in prison.
Randy Yu has held the Lantau seat in the Islands District Council since 2015. In the wake of the sweeping democrat victory at last November’s district council elections, Yu is now the sole non-democrat among the 18 council chairpersons.
He has been married to Lau since 2002. They have two sons and a daughter.
Lau, a fashion designer, created a minor stir at the early stages of the Covid-19 outbreak when she said she and her family were drinking Chinese medicine to ward off the virus.
Her brother Kenneth, who took over the Heung Yee Kuk after their father’s death in 2017, is one of the city’s most powerful politicians, a member of Exco, Legco and the CPPCC.
Prominent businessman charged over alleged Tai Long Wan assault
Prominent Hong Kong and mainland businessman Hui Chi Ming has been charged over an alleged assault of a Tai Long Wan resident.
Hui, 56, a former delegate to the Chinese People’s Political and Consultative Conference (CPPCC), faces one count of ordinary assault and another of criminal damage over an alleged incident on March 29.
Another man, Chan Ming Leung, 56, has been charged with unlawfully and maliciously wounding Alexander Robert Medd near Tai Long Wan Lot 43, Oriental Daily reported.
The two appeared in West Kowloon Court on Friday. Bail was set at HK$1,000 each and the accused were ordered not to harass witnesses.
The case was adjourned for hearing on September 25.
Hui is chairman of the HKEX-listed Hong Kong Finance Investment Holding Group. He is placed 828th on the Hurun 2020 China rich list with net worth of US$710 million.
In the past two years Hui has acquired a number of properties in the remote Lantau village and is building a private compound surrounded by a 3m high wall.
Photo: Entrance gate at Hui Chi-ming residence, Tai Long Wan
Police arrest two in $2.8m Lantau permit scam
Lantau driving permits are the unlikely centrepiece of an online scam in which 22 people have been defrauded of HK$2.82 million, police say.
The Cyber Security and Technology Crime Bureau arrested two men this week for allegedly defrauding people by promising to sell them a Lantau Closed Road Permit for HK$9,800.
After victims sent their personal details, the men blackmailed them, in some cases multiple times, by threatening to to post their information online, Sing Tao reported.
They also made multiple “get rich quick” social media posts promising to help people invest in Bitcoin and offering gambling tips for Macau. “Hundreds of thousands is not a dream,” one post said.
The 22 victims included students and professionals and ranged in age from 16 to 56 years old. The total sums gained from the Lantau driver permit frauds totalled approximately HK$100,000.
The largest single fraud involved a Bitcoin and a sum of HK$2.5 million, HK01 reported.
The two suspects, a 36-year-old man from Wong Tai Sin and a 38-year-old from Wanchai, have been charged with obtaining property by deception.
Woman detained after new-born baby allegedly thrown out of window
A 21-year-old Filipino woman has been detained by police after the corpse of a newly-born baby was discovered in an alley in Tong Fuk this morning.
The body of a baby girl with an umbilical cord attached was found around 10:30 by a neighbour letting his dog outside, Apple Daily reported.
A woman admitted to giving birth in the bathroom of her second floor apartment last night. She reportedly told police the baby was stillborn and had thrown it out of the window.
According to Apple Daily, the size of the foetus indicated it was 28 to 32 weeks old, but it had bruises and bleeding that may have been caused by falling from a height.
The woman’s mother, 53, who also lived in apartment, said she did not know her daughter was pregnant.
Lantau police blocked off the scene while they investigated. The later took a Filipina with Hong Kong ID to the station for further inquiries.
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