Hong Kong pair jailed for abducting woman outside prison over 500,000 yuan financial dispute
- Lau Kwok-kei, Zafar Tai and two teenagers admitted abducting victim in broad daylight outside Stanley Prison on December 17, 2022
- Defence lawyers earlier told the court Lau and Tai had sent 500,000 yuan to victim’s account for an investment but the bank froze the money
Two construction workers have been jailed for up to 20 months for abducting a woman outside a Hong Kong prison in 2022, after claiming she stole 500,000 yuan (US$69,000) from them in a financial dispute.
Lau Kwok-kei, 39, and Zafar Tai Tin-ho, 32, appeared at the District Court on Thursday to be sentenced over a joint count of false imprisonment.
Two teenage accomplices, waiter So Wai-tin, 19, and student Yu Chung-yan, 17, were also in court for sentencing.
The four defendants earlier admitted abducting Kam Ka-yu, to whom Lau had transferred money for an investment, in broad daylight near a bus stop outside Stanley Prison on December 17, 2022.
The court heard the group had waited in a van, looking to ambush Kam who was on her way to visit her boyfriend, an inmate of the prison.
Defence lawyers earlier told the court Lau and Tai had sent 500,000 yuan to Kam’s account, but the bank allegedly froze the money.
They said Tai, who contributed HK$300,000, was “furious and eager to get his hard-earned money back”, but to no avail.
Deputy Judge Francis Cheng Ming-bun noted that the group’s aggressive approach of dragging Kam into the vehicle, with Tai and the then 17-year-old So repeatedly exerting force, caused the victim to suffer bruises and abrasions on her body.
“[The victim] was struggling while she was being pulled inside the [vehicle] and violently forced onto the floor,” he said, adding “the panic she suffered was ineffable”.
Two prison officers rushed to the van and tried to stop the abductors. But one of them was punched as Lau, the driver, hit the accelerator and sped the group away with their captive.
Kam was rescued after police spotted the van and intercepted it outside Ocean Park in Aberdeen minutes later.
Wong sentenced Lau to 18 months in jail for false imprisonment and two months for a separate count of dangerous driving he pleaded guilty to earlier.
The court noted Tai was currently serving a seven-year jail sentence for a robbery he was convicted of last year, so Wong decided a separate six months’ term for the latest offence would be served consecutively.
Wong took into account So and Yu’s age as they were only juveniles when they committed the offence and that Yu had only tagged along with her then boyfriend and did not take part much.
So earlier also admitted to two counts of common assault.
He ordered So to be detained at a rehabilitation centre for a maximum of five months, followed by a supervision period of one year. Yu was sentenced to probation, subject to her behaviour over the next one to three years.
