Romantic deception: Hong Kong boyfriend used lover’s credit cards and burgled parents’ home after setting up bogus dinner
Couple met through WeChat; man stole girl’s credit cards and key to get into parents’ home
A boyfriend used his lover’s credit cards to pay for six iPhones without her knowing and took her parents out to dinner in a diversion to burgle their home, a court heard on Monday.
But all was revealed on February 15 after Chan Kai-ming failed to turn up at the dinner table with his girlfriend, Kathy Yip Lee-chi. Her parents later returned home to find their Taikoo Shing flat burgled despite a perfectly good lock, the District Court heard.
Yip, who was staying with Chan in a hotel at the time, broke up with the defendant on the following day after discovering that her key to the door of her home had gone missing. CCTV footage also caught Chan in the Taikoo Shing building that day.
The boyfriend was arrested about a month later when Yip ran into him in Lan Kwai Fong.
Chan, 22, pleaded guilty to one count of theft, three of obtaining property by deception and one of burglary. Items bought or stolen were worth about HK$70,000.
This all happened just weeks after Chan met the 28-year-old property agent via messenger app WeChat.
Senior public prosecutor Jennifer Fok said shortly after the two met in early January, Yip noticed that her credit card, which had gone missing, had been used to purchase two iPhones on January 16. She notified the bank and asked for a replacement card.
But four more iPhones were purchased with the new card in less than a month, the court heard.
Although Yip found the card in her wallet this time, she eventually terminated it.
The dinner and burglary took place weeks later, when at least one mobile phone, four watches worth HK$24,000, a jade ring worth HK$3,000 and HK$1,800 in cash in 18 separate red packets went missing.
After he was arrested, Chan admitted to police that he stole the woman’s credit cards while she was taking showers. He also used Yip’s key to gain access to her home to carry out the burglary.
Deputy judge Bina Chainrai ordered a report on his background before sentencing on August 1.
