Two teenage brothers missed their first day at school yesterday after their mother allegedly gambled away $8,000 in welfare support meant to pay for their new uniforms and books.
But the woman, 49, last night denied losing the cash gambling on mahjong, saying instead that she had 'dropped it'.
Neighbours on the Tai Yuen estate, Tai Po, said the woman had told them her sons, 13 and 14, were too embarrassed to go to school without uniforms and books and she had had to telephone the school to excuse them.
She told them she had gambled the $8,000 away playing mahjong, they claimed.
Police were called when the neighbours saw the mother banging her head against a wall on the estate.
They said the woman had become hysterical after she had tried and failed to borrow money from a friend.