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SCMP Reporter

GUANGDONG police chief Chen Shaoji promised yesterday to return five luxury yachts stolen from Hong Kong, but hinted that the owners might have to pay ''some form of compensation'' for their return.

 Mr Chen said three of the yachts were anchored at a marine police base in Guangzhou. The other two, which were being held near Sheung Chuen island and Ha Chuen island, would be transported to Guangzhou soon.

 It was understood that China and Hong Kong were still investigating who was responsible for the theft of nine luxury yachts worth more than $35 million last year.

  Mr Chen said four of the yachts were still missing.

 Unconfirmed reports said the most expensive one - a $20 million yacht owned by garment magnate Allan Zeman - was being used as a floating casino in the South China Sea.

 According to Mr Chen, his department had already alerted regional authorities that they should not purchase any yachts from suspicious sources.

  ''I am confident this alert will be helpful in our control over this kind of criminal activity in the future,'' he said.

 The police chief stressed that the compensation was not a ''pre-condition'', but he would raise the issue when he met his Hong Kong counterpart, Police Commissioner Li Kwan-ha, next month.

   ''I am not saying that the owners must pay us compensation before we will return these boats, but this is an issue that we need to raise with the Hong Kong police,'' Mr Chen said.

  He hinted that the compensation could come from the insurance paid to the yacht owners when they reported their losses.

  Although he admitted that the yachts were stolen from Hong Kong, he insisted that the mainlanders who had bought them were also ''victims'' and therefore should not be punished and deserved compensation.

  He claimed that some of these buyers paid more than one million yuan (about HK$888,000) when they bought the stolen yachts and were therefore ''justified'' in their demands for compensation.

  ''These buyers did not know these yachts were stolen from Hong Kong. Moreover, they did not break the law when they made the purchase,'' he said.

  ''In addition, our police had not warned these buyers not to purchase these suspicious yachts before we received the notification from Hong Kong police. That's why we want to discuss how to solve the problem of the buyers' losses with Hong Kong police,''he said.

  Mr Chen said the mainland buyers could not be considered guilty because China had no law governing the sale of luxury yachts.

  By the same logic, Mr Chen said, the Hong Kong owners of these luxury yachts were unlikely to receive any compensation for damage to their boats.

  Most of the costly decorations on board the yachts were understood to have been removed by the mainland buyers, who used the boats as ferries or floating casinos.



Luxury yachts to be returned