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ON A cold, misty morning, Mr Tommy Chan Kam-chuen stood calmly outside a sumptuous mansion on Bluff Path, one of the Peak's elite addresses.

      The miserable conditions were uncannily like those when Mr Chan last stood at the spot, at 8.30 am on April 12, 1983.

   On that day nearly a decade ago, Mr Chan drove up to the house of Chinachem group tycoon Teddy Wang Teh-heui with five men, about to commit a dramatic kidnap that would earn them US$11 million (HK$85.8 million) ransom money and launch them into criminalhistory.

  When Mr Chan took the Sunday Morning Post to the scene two days ago, the memories came flooding back. ''This is where we waited,'' he said, gesturing to a lay-by where the van was parked.

  His thoughts then turned to his victim, Wang, who is missing presumed dead following a second, unrelated kidnap in 1990.

  ''I should say sorry to Mrs Wang although I know it's too late,'' Mr Chan said. ''I'm very sincere.''   Sincerity is something Mr Chan appears to have no lack of. Since that day 10 years ago, his story is one of the most extraordinary to have emerged from the world of crime.

   It has taken him through Southeast Asia, to being a kidnap victim himself, to prison, to freedom and, most significantly, to a reformed life of Christianity.

   So great has Mr Chan's turnaround been that last week in the High Court Justice Nicholas Barnett said he could not recall an offender who had so plainly turned over a new leaf, adding Mr Chan was a credit to his family and the community.

      Mr Chan, 45, was sentenced to jail by the High Court for his part in the Wang kidnap, but allowed to walk free because he had become a Christian while in jail.

      The judge also showed leniency for the assistance Mr Chan gave the police and because of the amount of time he had already served waiting for the case to be heard. He had been on bail since 1989.

   Mr Chan claims the Bible saved his life in prison and said he felt a sense of fulfilment by helping those who had drifted aimlessly through their lives and into crime.

   Since being caught up in a web of greed and deception in 1983, Mr Chan has lived a life almost stranger than fiction.

    ''It was like a dream,'' he said. ''I don't think about whether I have done right or wrong, I've emerged peaceful and calm.

   ''Looking back I realise why I did some wrong things. I know the reason I committed them was because I was not satisfied, I was too materialistic.

   ''But I now realise life means the spirit of living. Once you have found the meaning of life it is the most important end and materialism becomes fake, it is not real.''     It was greed which drew him in to the plot to kidnap Wang, also known as Wong Tak-fai.

    Ten years ago, Mr Chan was clean. He says he was led into committing the crime after being deceived by gang leader and mastermind, Jennie Pau Cheng Na-yuet. He then hid in the territory for nine months before buying a false passport and fleeing to Thailand where he spent most of his proceeds from the ransom over the next two years.

    In an ironic twist of fate, he was kidnapped himself but freed a month later by Thai police. He contemplated suicide, and finally was jailed for 14 months in Bangkok for entering the country illegally.

    On his release Mr Chan was deported to Hongkong and spent 32 months in Lai Chi Kok reception centre until given bail in June 1989. He is now a businessman on Hongkong Island, trading with China.

    Sitting in an office chair with his second wife by his side, Mr Chan told how he was lured into the gang.

    ''Jennie Pau claimed Wang had cheated her friend of commission money,'' he said. ''I didn't suspect Jennie Pau, as we were partners in selling cash loans then, but her friend probably didn't exist.

    ''We looked at Wang as cheating Jennie Pau's friend and we were collecting debts for other people.''     He said he still did not know the truth and had never met the ''friend''.

    A detective working on the case supports Mr Chan's story, and said at least one other kidnapper, Ip Wing-tim, also believed he was lured into the gang and trails were left which led to the arrest of gang members.

    Mr Chan said he acted as a messenger between Pau and Ip - who tried to meet as little as possible - in February and March 1983, and then helped in the planning.

   ''I discussed with both of them how to kidnap Wang,'' he said.

    Mr Chan said the six gang members, three of whose names he had forgotten, drove to the Wangs' residence on Bluff Path on that day in 1983 armed with a fake handgun and a knife.

    ''We anticipated even with a toy gun the victims would be frightened,'' Mr Chan said.

    The gang blocked the path of the couple's Mercedes with a goods vehicle, which pulled out of a lay-by while a Mercedes driven by Pau drove up behind and stopped their escape.

    Wang, 57, one of Hongkong's wealthiest men, was forced to get out of the car and was gagged and blindfolded before having his hands and feet bound. He was bundled into a fridge in the back of the van and driven to a flat in To Kwa Wan.

    His wife, Nina, was bundled into the back of the Wang car and told to wear dark glasses while Mr Chan pushed in next to her and another gang member drove them away from the scene.

    Mr Chan and his colleagues told Mrs Wang her husband would die if she did not co-operate and she was instructed to open a bank account with the Overseas Trust Bank.

     Mrs Wang did this but also told the police. On further instructions she handed over a US$11 million ransom - of which US$8.8 million has been recovered by the police - to the account of Mrs Chan Shih-chen.

    Her husband was released unharmed on a hill in Sha Tin eight days later.

    ''I did a lot of wrong in the past but I want to be a good man and I will always self-examine myself and not have any bad thoughts,'' Mr Chan said.

    For his trouble, Mr Chan was due to earn US$1 million ''if successful'' - but was only paid US$400,000.

  ''I had no plans for the money,'' he said. ''At that time I was a bit impulsive.'' PAU, who went to Taiwan to collect the ransom but then fled to Hawaii, was jailed for seven years last November for her part in the crime.

  Mr Chan laid low in Hongkong for nine months after the kidnapping while he waited for instructions - and the rest of the money - from Pau.

  ''She told us to wait for her call but we did not hear from her again,'' Mr Chan said, without a trace of emotion in his voice.

  ''I don't know if she double crossed us or betrayed us, but I wouldn't be surprised if she did.''   Fearing he would be arrested, he bought a false Philippine passport and made his way to Macau. From there, he went overland to China before flying into Bangkok in early 1984. He said he spent most of his handout escaping from Hongkong and living in Thailand.

    Once in Thailand, he attempted to start a new life but was bored, out of work and running out of money.

    That did not stop a gang of thieves and rogue police officers from kidnapping him after they found out he was involved in Wang's abduction and assumed he was a rich man.

    ''Initially I was very frightened,'' Mr Chan said. ''I was not angry with them because by then I realised people commit crimes for money. They asked for 10 million baht [about HK$3.09 million],'' he said. ''But my [Hongkong] girlfriend bargained them down to 800,000 baht.''     She had also informed the police, who set a trap and caught the gang after Mr Chan managed to fight off his abductors and escape.

    However, he was arrested and imprisoned for 12 months in the Bangkok Immigration Centre for illegal entry into Thailand.

     It was at this point in his eventful life that he found God.

    ''Before I was arrested I was very afraid and very unhappy. I wanted to kill myself and didn't care about anything. After, I thought about it and didn't do it. I didn't care about what happened to me in the future,'' Mr Chan said.

    He said his life started to change when, one month after his imprisonment, when he suffered severe internal bleeding from a stomach illness, borrowed a friend's Bible and started to read.

    The next day his condition improved and he continued to read - and stopped taking his medication.

    ''They didn't let me go to a doctor and only gave me some pills and I was in tremendous pain,'' he said.

    ''I read the Bible and realised praying helped.

    ''I started praying and I was no longer in pain. I decided to read the Bible.''      Mr Chan said he studied the Bible - as well as Buddhism - so he could preach to other prisoners.

    ''The years I was happiest were the years I spent in jail, because I could help the other inmates look at life differently. Many were aimless and confused and I could help them move in a clearer direction and give them a goal in life.

   ''I used my status as a Christian to spread the word of religious teachings from the Bible.''      He has since reassessed his thinking on Christianity and now believes that religion itself is not the key to a happy life but only a means to find inner peace.

     ''I believe in life and truth, '' he said. ''Religion . . . showed me the way to find life and truth.''     Mr Chan was finally put on a jet back to Hongkong, where he spent almost three years in Lai Chi Kok jail waiting for Pau to stand trial.

    There, he taught himself the ancient Chinese martial art of qi gong, which he performs daily, and spent more time meditating.

    Eighteen months ago Mr Chan started supporting six children in Third World countries, paying $1,080 per month for each to the World Vision charity. He said he continued to pay money whenever he could afford it.

  Last week, his life turned full circle when he was allowed to walk away from his past life. ''I was confident, but then I didn't mind if I was jailed again. In my heart I thanked everybody in the universe, not only the judge.

   ''Even in daily life I am full of thanks.

   ''After the trial I came back to the office to work. I didn't think it was a special day.''      Mr Chan agreed to be interviewed by the Sunday Morning Post so other people would not fall into the same trap he did, saying there was retribution for all acts, both good and bad.

   ''I want to help young people who think of money and tell them that if they break the law it will ruin their futures,'' he said.

    ''I don't mind what people think about me as I am happy and my mind is clear. Pain and happiness are self developed.''      When Wang was abducted a second time in 1990 and US$60 million was sought in Hongkong's biggest ransom demand, Mr Chan prayed for his safe release.

    It was not to be.

    Wang is believed to have been dumped over the side of a fishing boat when his kidnappers panicked after seeing a Chinese naval vessel closing on them.

    ''When I first heard I was shocked for a few seconds but then I became calm,'' he said.

  ''Yes, of course I felt sorry. I prayed for Wang.''    Mr Chan married his second wife, Ms Hung Sik-yan, who he has known for 20 years, in 1990, and lives with her and her three children aged 21, 19, and 15. He said his family knows of his past and has accepted him.



Confessions of a kidnapper