Category: Police
Prosecutions for closed road breaches up sharply
Prosecutions of drivers entering South Lantau without a permit have risen by nearly three-fifths in the last two years, according to Transport Dept figures.
Police prosecuted 1007 drivers last year, up from 823 in 2014 and 637 in 2013, the department said in answer to a question from Legco member Kwok Ka Ki.
South Lantau police chief David Bennett, a former traffic policeman who took on the post early last year, has said he would make road safety a priority.
Prominent lawyers pay tribute to John Rhind
Prominent senior counsel Martin Lee and Ronny Tong have paid tribute to former High Court judge and South Lantau resident John Rhind.
Rhind, 80, went missing while on a regular walk from his home in Pui O last Monday. His body was found at Tong Fuk beach on Thursday.
Martin Lee, a senior barrister and founder of the Democratic Party, described Rhind as “gentleman,” Apple Daily reported. “A very fine person, a very fine temperament, I am stunned at his disappearance.”
Ronny Tong, former Legco and Civic Party member, described Rhind as “very approachable … a relatively commonsense and generous judge.” Continue reading
Another 7 migrants detained off Fan Lau
Police have arrested another group of suspected illegal migrants attempting to enter Hong Hong via Lantau.
Marine Police intercepted a sampan near Fan Lau in southwest Lantau at 5am today and detained seven non-Chinese males, aged between 26 and 34. Separately, they also arrested a 45 year-old Chinese man suspected of collaborating with the group. Continue reading
Another 13 Sth Asian migrants arrested after Lantau landing
Another 13 South Asian men have been arrested in the past nine days after illegally arriving on Lantau by boat.
Six Indian and Bangladeshi nationals arrived at Fan Lau in south-west Lantau early Saturday morning. After being arrested they said they would apply for asylum under the UN Convention Against Torture (UNCAT), the Oriental Daily News said.
Police received a report at 10am and went to the scene, where they intercepted the six, who had arrived by boat earlier that day. They were aged between 20 and 59. As with earlier illegal arrivals, they had flown legally to Guangzhou, where a snakehead had arranged to transport them to Shenzhen and then to Fan Lau by boat. Continue reading
Sth Asian illegal immigrants targeting Lantau
Police have detained nine South Asian men who came ashore in the remote village of Sham Wat, south-west Lantau, last week.
The nine, including two from Afghanistan, had flown legally to Guangzhou, where they had hired a snakehead to bring them to Hong Kong.
Local residents called police after they found none of the men could speak Cantonese. One of them had asked in English for a cab to go to “the city,” Oriental Daily News reported.
Of the nine men, five were from Pakistan and two were from Bangladesh. All had passports. Continue reading
New police chief targets speedsters
The new Lantau South police chief, an ex-traffic cop, has made road safety one of his priorities. Among other things, he’s considering putting plainclothes police on NLB buses and cracking down on drivers without Lantau road permits. As reported, he’s not a fan of opening up South Lantau’s roads to more cars.
More details here at the LBA blog.
Lantau speed cams coming in Q1
If you’re a Lantau driver you’d be well aware of the 12-feet high speed cameras that have loomed over our roads since early last year.
The Transport Department installed one each in Mui Wo and Pui O and two on Tung Chung Rd, leading to an immediate decline in speeds until drivers realised the orange pillars did not actually contain any monitoring equipment.
That will soon change, the department now says. An official told Lantau Confidential that they are now “under testing” and will be handed over to Lantau police some time in the first quarter.
Police say they haven’t yet had any formal word on activation of the cameras, though they note that the final decision on activating them is a joint one between the police and the TD.
According to the SpeedCameraPOI website, which plots the locations of road traffic cameras worldwide and puts them in a downloadable file, Hong Kong had 51 speed cameras as of April 29 last year.
Lantau Confidential 