Pair jailed for plotting to stab martial arts master

Two men who plotted a knife attack on banker and wing chun martial arts master Checkley Sin Kwok-lam have been jailed.

Delivery worker Ling Chi-yip, 38, and unemployed Wong Chi-wa, 41, had earlier pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to wound.

Ling also admitted one count of possessing imitation firearms at the District Court hearing. Ling was jailed for three years and Wong for two years and eight months.

The court had earlier heard that someone called Tai Keung told Wong to carry out a knife attack on Sin in return for HK$50,000. He gave Wong a photo of the intended victim and the address of his Kwun Tong office.

Ling told police that in November last year, Wong passed on the photo and the address to him and told him to chop Sin once or twice, promising him a payment of HK$30,000. Ling agreed, not knowing who Sin was.

But when he recognised a person next to Sin in the photo as the son of a kung fu master, he realised Sin might have kung fu skills and decided to acquire three fake guns to scare him.

Then, on November 30 last year - before the attack could take place - police searched Ling's home and found the three guns.

After his arrest, Ling told police he had been avoiding Wong's calls in an attempt to delay the attack.

But Deputy District Judge Johnny Chan Jong-herng said: 'I do not believe Ling decided to pull out.'

He said two of the guns - a Beretta and a Smith & Wesson - looked real and would have scared Sin.

As well as being vice-chairman of the World Wing Chun Union, Sin manages starlet Rose Chan Ka-woon and is chairman of lender First Credit Holdings. Sin invested HK$30 million in the 2010 movie The Legend Is Born: Ip Man, about the wing chun master.