Burglars steal HK$350,000 in gold and cash from luxury Stanley home

Burglars stole HK$350,000 in gold ornaments and cash from a luxury house in Stanley.

The tenant, 36, returned home shortly after midday yesterday to find her three-storey home in Villa Rosa, Red Hill Road, had been ransacked.

Security cameras recorded two men breaking into the house on Saturday evening.

"The two men climbed onto the first-floor balcony and pried open its glass sliding doors to gain entry to the living room," a police officer said.

Gold ornaments worth HK$300,000 were stolen, along with HK$50,000 in foreign currency. The tenant had not been at the house since last Friday.

The Western District crime squad is investigating but has made no arrests.

The house was bought in 2008 for HK$83.8 million by Stephen Yow Mok-shing and Pamela Cheng Chiu-ping, according to land search records.

Another building owned by Yow, in partnership with Wayne Yow Ying-cheong through Dragon Sun Enterprises Limited, was burgled in January. On that occasion burglars stole HK$94,000 worth of cash and valuables from two flats in a luxury low-rise block in Tai Tam Road, Stanley.

Stephen Yow was at the centre of controversy in 2007, when he sold the historic King Yin Lei mansion on Stubbs Road and the new owner defaced it in an apparent effort to sidestep obstacles to its demolition. The government offered a land exchange deal to the new owner to take over its management and open it to the public occasionally.

Reports of burglaries have decreased since 2010. Reports fell 15 per cent to 3,573 last year from 4,214 in 2012. There were 4,382 in 2011 and 4,543 in 2010.